Reclaimed wastewater as an ally to global freshwater sources: a PESTEL evaluation of the barriers

Together with climate change, rising living standards throughout the world have put pressure on existing freshwater sources and increased global water scarcity. The reclaimed wastewater projects face obstacles in sustainable implementation. This paper reviews Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal (PESTEL) factors that act as barriers to the successful implementation of the reclaimed wastewater. Owing to COVID-19, pandemic and presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in wastewater, future consequences on operations and public acceptance of reclaimed wastewater systems are discussed. This review will be useful for water experts, researchers and project planners for appropriate measures in future wastewater reuse projects.


INTRODUCTION
Wastewater reuse has been identified as a key strategy in the conservation of water resources and solution for global water challenges (Wester et al. ). The governmental support, efficient technology, sufficient capital and public acceptance are among essential requirements for the success of wastewater reuse. Negative response from public is among main hurdles for the successful implementation of these wastewater reuse schemes (Nancarrow et Table 1 (Po et al. a, b). There has been tremendous positive output from the research efforts into the technical aspect of wastewater reuse which undoubtedly has made it possible to produce reclaimed water safe for human consumption.
However, there is still a requirement of heavy research into social research and outreach regarding reclaimed water to ensure public acceptance (Villarín & Merel ).
Therefore, proper planning is necessary to put reclamation wastewater projects into practice. Redman et al. () reported that prior information about reclaimed water can be positive predictors for its acceptance. The main challenges are to identify public experiences, doubts, risks and cultural aspects associated with wastewater reuse which will help to address it through proper education and policy framework (Ricart et al. ).
Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal (PESTEL) analysis is a strategic business tool to evaluate the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environmental and Legal issues in a business which can provide strategic direction for its growth (Fahey & Narayanan ). It is used to assess,  In Singapore, the most effective reclaimed water project, NEWater, is considered as the upright example for wastewater reuse. It recycles the wastewater and is considered as the best and cheaper option (Po et al. a, b).   reported that lower costs of water distribution network and installation are directly related to cost of the reclaimed water which can increase public acceptance of water reuse.
However, the cost factor depends on various parameters and its value is attached to capital investments made by service provider and returns (Woolston & Jaffer ).

O&M cost and water pricing
Reclaimed water schemes add to the complexity of financing and costing of the water services. Instead of a continuous water source, reclaimed wastewater is an added source of water during scarcity of water from freshwater sources.
The pricing schemes of conventional freshwater schemes based on cost recovery cannot be applicable with reclaimed water schemes. Pricing of the reclaimed water scheme should also focus on encouraging its acceptance. However, simultaneous focus of pricing of reclaimed water schemes on cost recovery, water demand management and increase in public acceptance is not feasible (Molinos-Senante et al. ). Therefore, apart from focus on cost recovery, the pricing strategy for a reclaimed water scheme should be based on the system-wide approach which involves all beneficiaries who receive a benefit after inclusion of reclaimed water in the water portfolio. This will create a shift from user pays principle to the broad beneficiaries pay approach On the cost side, the cost of additional wastewater treatment to make it safe for non-potable and potable reuse is an extra component compared with the regular water supply scheme. This can increase the water prices in a reclaimed water scheme resulting in reclaimed water being more expensive than regular freshwater supply.
Together with health risk and yuck factor, this will reduce the acceptance of reclaimed water. Therefore, on the tariff side, cross subsidization can be implemented in which the price of reclaimed water is recovered from tariffs imposed on freshwater supply. This approach involves supply of freshwater at higher prices than its production and distribution investment, to accommodate the cost of water reuse and motivation for the public to accept low priced reclaimed water (Zayas et al. ).
As depicted from few case studies shown in Table 2, pricing based on consumption is the common tariff except few cases such as in Bora Bora for landscape irrigation, where a fixed rate is applied irrespective of consumption levels.
Compared with the category of landscape irrigation, the water prices in case of groundwater (GW) recharge are lower (0.08-0.4 versus 0.13-2.18 €/m 3 ) ( Cyprus and California, it may also suggest that potable usages of reclaimed water will also attract cross subsidization to reduce recycle water tariffs and encourage its acceptance.

Social factors
Disgust/yuck emotions   The presence of emerging contaminants (ECs) in water and wastewater at the concentration levels of nanograms per litre can be gauged in a similar manner. Two decades back, the EC concern was not significant but with public awareness, it is becoming mandatory for wastewater reuse utilities to remove a certain group of ECs. It can be expected that similar developments will occur with respect to SARS-CoV-2. Combatting the COVID-19 pandemic needs extra water security to ensure adequate water supply for maintaining public health and hygiene. One of the recommendations for public health safety during the COVID-19 pandemic is hand washing, which needs an adequate supply of safe water.

Use of technologies in marketing
Appropriate marketing strategies need to be adopted by municipalities for the successful implementation of Deliberate exposure to the reclaimed water is a form of customer engagement that can increase confidence and personal experience with reclaimed water. Hills et al. () reported the acceptance of reclaimed water was higher among those participants from England who had been exposed to reclaimed water intentionally or unintentionally.
In this study, those participants showed higher acceptance who had seen signage of reclaimed water in water exhibitions or used the toilets where reclaimed water was used for flushing. Saad () also reported that the gradual establishment of direct human contact with reclaimed wastewater will help to tackle its wrong perception. This for drinking, and 52% perceived its taste as not good. These negative images of reclaimed water are also to be addressed; however, advertising is not an option for it. Khan & Gerrard () and Hurlimann () suggested that these negative images can be addressed by extensive public consultations, public exposure to the reclaimed treatment plants, providing opportunities to the public to have hands on experience with reclaimed water.

Health risk
The primary concern of reclaimed water is the associated health risk after consumption (Hartley ).

QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PESTEL FOR RECLAIMED WATER INDUSTRY
The PESTEL analysis of the reclaimed water industry is a precondition analysis which can help in strategic decision making for the implementation of reclaimed water. However, PESTEL analysis should provide a quantitative assessment of the situation leading to the proper decision making and weightage of each PESTEL factor. These factors may be put into an analytical and systematic framework by application of analytic hierarchy processes (AHP) making it possible to analyse the relative importance of each factor or sub-factors while implementing reclaimed water. This will also help in the integrated evaluation of PESTEL factors for the reclaimed water.
The various steps in this process may be the following: • Gaining information about each PESTEL factor and subfactors that are influencing the implementation of reclaimed water. These factors may vary from region to region depending on the local circumstances.
• Identification and mapping of interdependencies of these PESTEL factors by structural modelling approaches such as Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL).
• Determination of local weights and inner dependence matrix of the identified PESTEL factors based on the DEMATEL analysis.
• Calculating the interdependent and sub-factor weights by analytic network process (ANP) and AHP, respectively.
• Determination of global weights by multiplication of interdependent and sub-factor weights from the previous step.
• Evaluation of the level of each PESTEL sub-factor that is • Cheaper drinking water sources can increase their willingness for purchase and consumption. No change in tariff can shift public emotions to other factors such as disgust leading to lower acceptance of reclaimed water.
In addition to focus on cost recovery, the pricing strategy for a reclaimed water scheme should be based on the system-wide approach which involves all beneficiaries who benefit from the presence of reclaimed water in the water portfolio. On the tariff side, cross subsidization can be implemented in which the price of reclaimed water is recovered from tariffs imposed on freshwater supply, to accommodate cost of water reuse and motivation for public to accept low priced reclaimed water. • The role of media is essential to disseminate the information and the timely knowledge about the importance of wastewater reclamation in efficient water management and its potential to provide reliable safe water during drought.
• Branding the reclaimed wastewater is one of the strategies which depend upon identification of desirable and undesirable attributes of water in public perception. A research requirement is to identify which attributes users want to be visible in the reclaimed wastewater which will help in formulating the directions of marketing campaigns for the reclaimed water.