Water Infrastructure for the Future
Pros & Cons of Decentrililzation
Why decentralization has not caught on:
The potential of decentralization has yet to be realized due to the continuous neglect from advocates, entrepreneurs, and professionals on the issues involving water supply, storm water, and wastewater. Instead of visualizing these three issues as a whole, they view these issues as separate entities. If stakeholders are unable to see these problems as a whole, then the potential for decentralization will never be realized.
Decentralized graywater systems may not be as beneficial for single-family households due to the high cost of eqipment and maintenance needs. Also, single-family households have smaller volumes of graywater to recycle, especially if they have efficient fixtures in their house.
Challenges in adopting decentralization
As advantageous as decentralized water can be, there are numerous institutional impediments to its adoption. Innovators have trouble selling their products and services in a system in which regulators, municipal utilities, engineers, unions, and other entrenched bureaucracies or interests can refuse to alter the rules and practices in new approaches. Often just one of these constituencies can block a new approach that a majority of local stakeholders might support.
In recent years, the EPA and others have adopted an incremental approach to incorporating decentralized systems into the traditional paradigm by providing information and guidance to communities on a number of decentralized technologies, such as low-impact development, decentralized wastewater treatment, and most recently, water-efficient appliances and green infrastructure.
Pros
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Less energy intensive and less expensive than conveyance (for areas that are far from water)
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Less energy intensive and less expensive than desalination
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Less energy intensive and less expensive than centralized water recycling
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More environmentally and ecologically friendly than freshwater diversion, conveyance, and desalination
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Sustainable
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Reduces freshwater demand
Cons
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May not be as beneficial for single family households
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If homes have efficient fixtures, there won't be as much wastewater to recycle
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Initial capital costs may be pricey
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Have to build new infrastructure in existing/old homes
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Negative public perception of "toitet to tap"
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Public health concerns of water quality
Transitioning to Decentralization
So how do we make the transition to decentralization? The help of local and state governments is needed in order to achieve a successful adoption of decentralized technologies. Governments are better equipped to set a collective learning environment to educate the public on the benefits of such a system, and can also encourage other actors to participate. In addition, they have the ability to develop new policies and regulations that will enable the use of an efficient decentralized system. For example, in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, various local governments have enacted local regulations to promote the use of decentralized systems. Some municipalities in the region have also made available subsidies or other incentives to encourage the installation of these systems. The implementation of decentralized water systems also requires a series of changes in the formal and informal water management institutional framework. Private individuals or communities, usually families or neighborhood associations, rather than cities or water utilities manage decentralized systems.