Wastewater treatment presents a sustainable short-term and long-term solution to water scarcity. Wastewater is the water used by residences and commercial/industrial establishments that has become too polluted for further use.
Water treatment facilities are designed to speed up the natural process of purifying water. With billions of people and even more wastewater, the natural process is overloaded. Without wastewater treatment, the amount of wastewater would cause devastation, as it still does today in developing countries. Globally, over 80 percent of all wastewater is discharged without treatment.