A study and analysis on the reuse of treated wastewater considering safety aspects related to antibiotic resistant genes and bacteria

Water recycling and reuse is a set of processes that recover, treat and reuse water from different sources. The water resulting from this process can be reused for beneficial purposes such as agriculture and irrigation, drinking water supply, groundwater recharge, industrial processes and environmental restoration. Water reuse can be used as alternatives to existing water resources and to increase water security, sustainability and resilience. Antibiotics are medications that destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria. Doctors prescribe them to treat bacterial infections. They do this by killing bacteria and preventing them from multiplying. Municipal wastewater treatment plants are regarded as one of the main sources of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the aquatic environment. A significant amount of research has been carried out to understand the microbiological quality of wastewater with respect to its antibiotic resistance potential over the past several years. UV disinfection has primarily been used to achieve disinfection, including damaging DNA, but there has been an increasing use of chlorine and H۲O۲-based AOPs for targeting genes, including ARGs, considering the higher energy demands related to the greater UV fluences needed to achieve efficient DNA damage. This review focuses on some of the most investigated processes, including UV photolysis and chlorine in both individual and combined approaches and UV advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) using H۲O۲. Since these approaches have practical disinfection and wastewater treatment applications globally, the processes are reviewed from the perspective of extending their scope to DNA damage/ARG inactivation in full-scale wastewater treatment.

کلیدواژه ها:

water reuse ، wastewater treatment ، source prevention ، monitoring and surveillance ، risk assessment