Reclamation of Treated Wastewater in the Apulia Region (Italy): State of the Art and Future Perspectives

In Italy treated urban wastewaters, can be reclaimed for agricultural, civil and industrial purposes thanks to a recently approved Ministerial Decree, the n. 185/2003. In the Apulia, a region in the south-east of Italy, due to the carsic nature of the soil and the consequent scarcity of water surface bodies, there have been built numerous urban wastewater treatment plants that discharge treated effluents in sea or in the subsoil. Regional authorities, in the recently promulgated “Water Resources Protection and Management Master Plan”, intended to stop this practice as soon as possible and stated that water reclamation must be implemented in the existing wastewater treatment plants. The situation nowadays shows that in Apulia there are 197 urban wastewater treatment plants, 13 are currently eligible for reuse and 27 need additional improvements or are new constructions, to fulfil quality requirements of reclaimed water. This paper is aimed at qualitatively describing the state of the art of the wastewater reclamation in the Apulia region, the technologies actually utilizable to adapt the existing treatment plants and also the economic aspects involved in the improvements of the existing facilities. Among the technologies actually utilizable, some of them require high amount of electricity to work, others chemicals with the impacts related to its production. From the economic point of view the adaptation costs depends on the size, on the quality parameters of the water to reach in the initial project of the plant and on the final use of the reclaimed water. Moreover concerns in farmers about the quality of reclaimed water for irrigation purposes impeded the diffusion of this new water source