Abstract Freshwater scarcity has increased in the cities of the global South due to rapid urban agglomeration and changing climate. Alternative water resources such as treated wastewater can play a significant role to reduce the water supply-demand gap. In the recent past, wastewater has been used solely for irrigation and other allied agriculture purposes, with limited focus on reuse for other purposes within the cities. Despite the progress in wastewater treatment technology and various policy frameworks, in low income and lower-middle-income countries, limited progress has been made. Through this article, we compare three aspects, representing the wastewater paradigms in India and the Netherlands. The three elements are 1) framing, 2) policy goals, and 3) technical and financial instruments. Using policy document analysis and interviews, we compare water and related policies prepared in India and the Netherlands. We found that the wastewater paradigms have evolved in the two countries. In India, the wastewater paradigms have realized paradigm changes from ‘water resource to meet a basic human need’ to ‘water as an engine of economic growth’ and then to ‘water scarcity and beautification of cities’. In the case of the Netherlands, the wastewater paradigms have changed from an emphasis on ‘public health and environmental concerns’ to the ‘circular economy of wastewater’. Although the Netherlands has to still meet the water quality targets of the European Water Directive Framework with regards to micropollutants, the country has made significant progress towards wastewater treatment and reuse in the last four decades. On the contrary, the Indian wastewater policy domain has room for improvement in terms of designing appropriate financial instruments and governance strategies to increase the urban wastewater treatment capacity and reuse. This article concludes that the use of the concept of wastewater paradigm is useful to show the progress and challenges in the two countries.

中文翻译：

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从豌豆汤到水厂：印度和荷兰的废水范例

摘要 由于快速的城市群和气候变化，全球南方城市的淡水短缺加剧。处理过的废水等替代水资源可以在缩小水资源供需差距方面发挥重要作用。最近，废水仅用于灌溉和其他相关农业用途，很少关注城市内的其他用途。尽管废水处理技术和各种政策框架取得了进展，但在低收入和中低收入国家，进展有限。通过本文，我们比较了三个方面，代表了印度和荷兰的废水范例。这三个要素是 1) 框架，2) 政策目标，以及 3) 技术和金融工具。使用政策文件分析和访谈，我们比较了印度和荷兰制定的水和相关政策。我们发现废水范式在这两个国家都发生了变化。在印度，废水范式已经实现了从“满足人类基本需求的水资源”到“水作为经济增长引擎”再到“缺水美化城市”的范式转变。就荷兰而言，废水范式已从强调“公共卫生和环境问题”转变为“废水循环经济”。尽管荷兰仍需满足欧洲水指令框架关于微污染物的水质目标，但该国在过去四年中在废水处理和再利用方面取得了重大进展。相反，在设计适当的金融工具和治理策略以提高城市污水处理能力和再利用方面，印度污水政策领域还有改进的余地。本文的结论是，废水范式概念的使用有助于展示两国的进展和挑战。