About
Wastewater is one of the biggest challenges of our time: huge quantities of untreated wastewater end up in the environment with damaging consequences for people’s health, socioeconomic development and ecosystems. When properly managed, this “waste” has the potential to become a valuable resource which can help achieve water security and circularity.
Why does it matter?
Wastewater is a growing health and environmental threat, accounting for almost as much planet warming emissions as the aviation industry. Almost 50 per cent of wastewater still enters our environment untreated, posing to be a serious risk to the health of the environment and humans alike.
When wastewater enters the environment untreated, harmful pollutants affect marine life causing a degradation of habitats. On land, exposed untreated wastewater can enter water pipes that then reach humans and can cause an outbreak of severe diseases. Wastewater also has major implications and affects basic sanitation provision.
Water is a finite resource and the demand from a rapidly growing population puts additional stress on our freshwater bodies; and sustainable wastewater management shows great promise to fulfil this growing demand. With the right policies, wastewater could be an invaluable resource, providing alternative energy to half a billion people, supplying over 10 times the water provided by current global desalination capacity and offsetting over 10 per cent of global fertilizer use.
What does UNEP do?
To tackle this issue, UNEP works through the Global Wastewater Initiative (GWWI) and seeks to change the paradigm of how wastewater is commonly seen, from simple waste to a valuable and rich resource. Wastewater, when managed properly, can also help address other challenges, including climate change, biogas production and the creation of green jobs. The initiative focuses on four areas: policy support and development, technology and innovative approaches through demonstration projects, awareness-raising and capacity-building through knowledge sharing webinars and events.
The Initiative supports countries in achieving several global targets, especially those in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and specifically SDG 6 on “Water and Sanitation for All” and SDG 14 on “Life below Water”.
UNEP addresses wastewater pollution with an integrated perspective of wastewater, which includes domestic effluent (black-grey water and faecal sludge), stormwater, industrial effluent, agricultural effluent and run-off with an aim of protecting people, the freshwater and marine ecosystems from wastewater pollution worldwide.
Facts
- With the right policies, wastewater could provide alternative energy to half a billion people, supply over 10 times the water provided by current global desalination capacity and offset over 10 per cent of global fertilizer use.
- Today, only 11 per cent of the world’s treated wastewater is reused and around half of the world’s untreated wastewater still enters rivers, lakes and seas.
- Through the release of potent greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, wastewater accounts for about 1.57 per cent of global emissions, just below the climate harm caused by the global aviation industry.
Yet wastewater can become a climate solution: in generating biogas, heat and electricity, it can produce about five times more energy than is required for its treatment – enough to provide electricity for around half a billion people per year. By reducing water insecurity, good management of wastewater can also support countries’ efforts to adapt to climate change.
