Water reuse from treated wastewater: insights gained from the Italian demonstration case studies of the Wider-Uptake EU project

Water represents one of the resources that can be recovered from a wastewater treatment plant. This resource is the most abundant and easily available, and its value is growing due to climate change. The EU Project Achieving Wider Uptake of Water Smart Solutions (Wider-Uptake) aimed to recover water by breaking the existing barriers and favouring water reuse according to European regulations. In this context, the Italian partner focused on several strategies: (1) favor and technically support restarting an ultrafiltration (UF) full-scale plant of Corleone (Italy); (2) set up a demonstration case to treat the wastewater from the University of Palermo Campus and reuse water for irrigation and scientific scopes; (3) set up mathematical models and indices to support the behavior of the ultrafiltration plants aimed at producing water to be reused for agricultural scopes. This chapter summarizes the Italian experiences (key activities and results) of water reuse in the context of the Wider-Uptake project.