Abstract:
In Central America and the Caribbean, the potential for reuse of treated wastewater has generally been overlooked and the resource wasted. The effective management of wastewater is further hindered by the strong cultural barrier to discussing wastewater management openly and to identifying opportunities for reuse of treated wastewater. The GEF CReW Project provided support for two pilot projects, one in Antigua and Barbuda (A&B) and the other in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) in the period 2015 – 2016. There is undoubtedly significant interest in these countries in the reuse of treated wastewater due to increasing interest in water use efficiency, especially as concerns over climate change and its impact grow. Although implementation of both these treated water reuse projects experienced many challenges, there were many lessons learnt and there is significant potential for treated wastewater reuse in the future. The experience and lessons learned in attempting to implement these two short pilot projects are described.