Studies on Management Mechanisms of Environmental Safety for Recycled Water in China

Abstract

As the shortage of freshwater resources is getting worse and worse, recycled water has gradually become the secondary water resources for non-potable usages. However, potential threats to environmental safety were stimulated along with the utilization of recycled water. This study is focusing on potential problems of environmental safety resulted from the usages of recycled water and the causes of these problems. Furthermore, management mechanisms of environmental safety for recycled water were proposed, which are the foundations of safety management system for recycled water. There are four major components within this safety management system for recycled water, such as policy, law, and regulation subsystem, standard subsystem, technical supporting subsystem, and safety management measures subsystem.
Key words: recycled water; non-potable usages; environmental safety; management mechanisms