Half of every drop.
By 2045.
The world reuses 11% of its municipal water today. The Scaling Water Reuse Initiative is building the coalition to make 50% the global ambition for the post-2030 UN agenda.
Today and 2045
From 11% to 50%,
of a bigger drop.
The case
Why a target,
why now.
We don't have to fight over water.
Cities are running short. Industries face existential supply risk. Water is becoming the next driver of geopolitical conflict. But unlike fossil fuels, water is infinitely renewable — every drop we use can be used again. Reuse is what turns a contested resource into an abundant one.
Water security is now everyone's problem.
The intensity of droughts and floods has doubled in twenty years. Regions that never thought about water security — northern Europe, the American Midwest, parts of East Asia — now face sudden, severe shortages. Rising global temperatures don't just make dry places drier; they make every place vulnerable.
Less taken, less polluted, more for nature.
Every drop reused is a drop not abstracted from a river, lake, or aquifer — and a drop not discharged as pollution. Reuse simultaneously reduces freshwater withdrawal and raises the quality of what returns to the environment. Ecosystems gain on both ends.
Better sanitation for all.
Wastewater management is a cost centre. Cities and countries spend on collection and treatment but rarely recover the investment, which is why so much of the world still discharges sewage untreated. Reuse changes the equation: once treated wastewater is a valuable resource, the case for investing in sanitation finally closes — particularly in the low- and middle-income countries where the gap is largest.
The trajectory
Progress towards
50% by 2045.
Sources: GWI DesalData / IDRA Desalination & Reuse Handbook 2025. China figures based on data published by MOHURD. Environmental enhancement (~18 km³/year, largely China) is shown separately as it is not universally recognised as reuse and falls outside the proposed target scope.
The strategy
Make reuse the first
choice for water.
Two parallel shifts get us there: changing how the world thinks about reuse, and changing how the economics work.
Build the case, build the coalition.
- A coalition of the willing across utilities, industry, finance, civil society, and government
- A global target for water reuse embedded in the post-2030 UN agenda
Raise the value, lower the cost.
- Increasing the value of reused water through migration to higher-value applications and pricing reform
- Reducing the cost of producing it through innovation, scale, and smarter regulation
The coalition
Five working groups,
one objective.
Tech Innovators
Mapping the technology innovations that halve the cost of water reuse.
Industry & Supply Chain
Defining what an industrial water reuse target means for water-intensive sectors and global supply chains.
Policies & Regulations
Identifying regulatory frameworks that enable reuse rather than restrict it.
Project Finance
Developing repeatable financial models for reuse projects across geographies.
Cities, Utilities & Communications
Strategies for making reuse work in cities — and the public engagement that makes it possible.
Join a working group
Contribute to the policy document.
Join the coalition.
The Scaling Water Reuse Initiative is a global network of businesses, organisation and individuals who share a commitment to making reuse the first choice for water.