Wastewater reuse in Turkey: from present status to future potential

Abstract

The Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (MoEU) initiated an important project, ‘Reuse of Treated Wastewater in Turkey’, in 2017. With this project, all wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were investigated to determine wastewater reuse purposes for the first time. The results obtained from this project were that although there are 1,015 existing WWTPs, only 15 of them realized wastewater reuse. In 2017, the total volume of reused treated wastewater in Turkey amounted to 29.6 million m3/year, accounting for 0.78% of the treated urban wastewater. With the present water potential and sectoral water use rates, Turkey should make key administrative and technical regulations in the coming years for water reuse. This paper aims to give an overview of wastewater reuse activities from present status to future potential in Turkey and the opportunities and challenges in expanding water reuse. The status of WWTPs, treatment processes and their compliance with the WWTPs where reuse is carried out in Turkey are evaluated in this study. The realization of the planned goals and challenges are discussed after regulatory changes in Turkey for reclaimed wastewater and reuse targets for 2023.

Assessment of energy performance and GHG emissions for the urban water cycle toward sustainability

“…The average value of NRW in Turkey was officially reported at 35% in 2018, but the actual NRW level is estimated to be much higher (Muhammetoglu & Muhammetoglu 2017). Additionally, the reuse of treated urban wastewater is very limited in Turkey being less than 2% (Nas et al 2020). Consequently, there is an urgent need to reduce NRW (Firat et al 2021), to increase the reuse of treated wastewater and nutrient recovery in Turkey, like many countries in the world.…”

Water security challenges of Ankara City in Turkey: Lessons from climate change impact and the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…In Ankara, more than 2.6% of municipal water is used for irrigation in green areas (Nas et al, 2020); however, alternative sources like gray water could be used via sustainable systems. In addition, a significant amount of savings could be made by taking measures such as network renewal, tariff structure changes, maintenance investments, rapid detection of water leaks, developing awareness training for the sustainable use of resources, developing practices for the use of water-saving technologies, nature-based solutions, and promoting efficient industrial water.…”

Innovative Wastewater Treatment Technologies — The INNOQUA Project

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