It is crystal clear that, in addition to clean air, the well-being of our planet also requires that water, wastewater and the resulting biosolids (sludge) need to be managed more seriously, and in a focused, coordinated and cooperative manner.
The idea for the creation of this Global Atlas of Excreta, Wastewater Sludge, and Biosolids Management originated at the IWA Biosolids Conference, “Moving Forward Wastewater Biosolids Sustainability: Technical, Managerial, and Public Synergy” held in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada in June 2007. At this conference representatives of the International Water Association (IWA), Water Environmental Federation (WEF) and European Water Association (EWA) agreed that it would be very useful to produce a current edition of the “Global Atlas of Wastewater Sludge and Biosolids Use and Disposal” which had been published in 1996, with Peter Matthews being the original editor.