Economic Aspects of Wastewater Reuse: The Egyptian Case

Several regions in the world suffer water stress. As only a small part of withdrawn water is consumed, properly recovering, treating and suitably reusing wastewater will help to reduce the supply-demand gap and save the environment from the adverse effect of dumping polluted wastewater. A simulation model is built to identify the main variables, key relationships and examine their dynamics. The model is applied to Egypt. The main findings point to the fact that the pressure population growth exerts on natural resources can be alleviated by adopting suitable policy intervention tools. Furthermore, the most effective policy tools are those based on economic criteria.