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POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article

Front. Water
Sec. Water and Human Systems
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2024.1341715
This article is part of the Research Topic Sustainable Water Resources Management: Rights, Conflicts, and Collaborative Solutions View all articles

Growing the Portfolio: Circular Economy through Water Reuse in Iran

Provisionally accepted
Mohammad Al-Saidi Mohammad Al-Saidi 1*Sudeh Dehnavi Sudeh Dehnavi 2
  • 1 Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
  • 2 Technical University of Cologne, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In Iran, water scarcity is increasing due to the rapid growth in economy and population, but also due to waste and overuse. Marginal water resources (unutilized water of lower quality) can provide important options to augment water supply or replace freshwater use. In this way, they can reconcile the seemingly opposing views of water development and water management. Encouraging reuse and circulation of marginal water can enhance water availability and conserve freshwater. This paper analyses water reuse options and policies in Iran. It explains policy constraints based on the type of water for reuse and compares the water reuse policies in Iran to regional experiences. Such a contextualization of Iran's policies from a regional perspective provides opportunities for mutual learning and lessons for policy reforms. For Iran, there is a need for investments and comprehensive reuse policies. New water sources need to be appropriately identified, treated, delivered and accepted by end-users and society.

    Keywords: Water reuse, Circular economy, Iran, wastewater treatment, marginal water resources, Food security

    Received: 20 Nov 2023; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Al-Saidi and Dehnavi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mohammad Al-Saidi, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

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