Water scarcity has become one of the defining challenges of our time. While global demand grows exponentially, the resources available are shrinking and extreme climate events are striking vulnerable territories with increasing frequency and severity. In Brazil, one of the countries with the greatest water wealth on the planet, the reality is that the Northeast and the Metropolitan Region of Recife face chronic scarcity, where industries, cities, and communities compete for every available cubic meter. In this context, insisting on a linear model of use and disposal is simply unsustainable: every liter lost represents not only an economic cost, but an unavoidable operational and social risk.
The Water Reuse project, located in Igarassu (Pernambuco), emerges as a strategic response to this challenge. Through a state-of-the-art Effluent Treatment Plant, with a capacity of 12 m³/h, equivalent to more than 100,000 m³ annually, the initiative transforms industrial and sanitary wastewater into a safe, traceable, and reusable resource. The impact is tangible: every cubic meter repurposed represents one less cubic meter of groundwater extraction, protecting already overexploited aquifers and reinforcing the water resilience of the entire basin.
The opportunity for change that opens up is significant. Instead of relying exclusively on conventional sources subject to regulatory restrictions and climate variability, the project implements a circular model where water ceases to be a liability and becomes a productive asset. This not only ensures operational continuity and cost savings, but also positions the initiative as a pioneer in the transition toward Water Positive industries. If this scheme were replicated across Recife’s industrial hub, the reuse potential would easily exceed millions of cubic meters per year, equivalent to the consumption of tens of thousands of households.
The project aligns with the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA) 2.0 methodology, quantifying measurable volumetric benefits, and with the Water Quality Benefit Accounting (WQBA) framework, ensuring that the quality of the treated water meets regulatory standards. Its rationale is clear: reduce pressure on local water resources, strengthen water security, and demonstrate that sustainability is not an additional cost but a competitive advantage. The combination of physical traceability (treated and reused flows) and digital traceability (continuous monitoring, auditable reports) ensures that each result is verifiable and replicable.
The key stakeholders in this initiative are multiple and complementary: the project owner and beneficiary; the technology partner responsible for the plant’s design, construction, operation, and maintenance under a BOT model; local environmental authorities that ensure regulatory compliance; and an independent verification entity, responsible for auditing traceability and validating water benefits under VWBA and WQBA. This articulation of actors provides technical robustness, transparency, and governance to the project.
The strategy is directly linked to the Water Positive roadmap, by explicitly complying with the principles of additionality (generation of benefits that would not exist without the intervention), traceability (physical and digital monitoring of the treated and reused flow), and intentionality (project design with the central objective of reducing pressure on aquifers and increasing the basin’s water resilience). Thus, reuse is not only a case of operational efficiency, but a concrete, measurable, and verifiable contribution to the transition toward a regenerative industrial model.
In a global scenario where the climate crisis accelerates desertification and threatens water security, projects like this mark a turning point. It is not only about managing efficiencies: it is about redesigning the relationship between industry and water, and demonstrating that every effluent can be the source of the future. Here, every recovered drop is a symbol of resilience, innovation, and long-term vision.
The Metropolitan Region of Recife faces a structural water deficit that compromises both urban life and industrial activity. Conventional sources no longer offer security in the face of climate variability, and dependence on overexploited groundwater aquifers increases regulatory and operational risks. In this scenario, the technical and strategic opportunity arises from transforming an effluent previously considered a liability into a new, safe source of supply. The advanced tertiary treatment plant, equipped with MBBR bioreactors, sand filtration, activated carbon, and disinfection, processes up to 8,640 m³ per month of industrial and sanitary effluents, returning them to the internal cycle with guaranteed quality for non-potable uses.
The benefits are immediate and quantifiable: elimination of groundwater extraction at that scale, reduced pressure on local aquifers, full compliance with environmental regulations, and significant operational savings by replacing potable water consumption with on-site treated resource. Every cubic meter regenerated avoids polluting discharges into the environment and represents a step toward industrial water neutrality. In the short term, the impact translates into supply security and cost reduction; in the medium term, into greater resilience to droughts and regulatory stability; and in the long term, into the consolidation of a circular industrial model that strengthens reputation and social license to operate.
Behind this transformation are the technology partner and operator under a BOT scheme, the project owner as beneficiary and driver, and the environmental authorities that frame the operation within strict quality parameters. This model is replicable in any Brazilian and Latin American industrial hub with high water pressure, demonstrating that the transition toward water circularity is technically and economically viable. Acting now is key: every year of delay means continued erosion of aquifers and increased industrial vulnerability.
Companies that choose to lead or join this type of solution gain more than water: they ensure compliance with ESG commitments, differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market, respond proactively to new regulatory requirements, and build a powerful narrative of innovation and sustainability. Water reuse not only protects an industrial process: it makes this approach a benchmark for how industry can and must regenerate the resources upon which it depends in the future.
The central technical solution is based on a Mixed Effluent Treatment Plant designed with advanced biological processes (MBBR), followed by sand filtration, polishing with activated carbon, and final disinfection. This hybrid configuration, gray for its infrastructure and digital for its online monitoring, ensures the production of safe water for non-potable reuse within the same plant.
Alternatives such as constructed wetlands and MBR were evaluated; however, advanced tertiary treatment was selected for its greater operational robustness, regulatory compliance, and scalability in a high-demand industrial hub. With a capacity of 12 m³/h (8,640 m³/month), the plant ensures a constant supply that directly replaces groundwater abstraction.
Identified risks include possible technological failures, regional hydrological variability, and potential social resistance to effluent reuse. To mitigate them, redundant pumping and treatment systems, operational contingency plans, critical failure response protocols, and periodic external audits were incorporated. Real-time digital monitoring enables immediate alarms in case of parameter deviations, while shared governance with environmental authorities ensures transparency and trust. Climate resilience is reinforced by the ability to operate continuously even during drought periods, reducing dependence on vulnerable conventional sources.
The technical and strategic justification is clear: the system addresses a problem of aquifer overexploitation, regulatory pressure, and supply interruption risk. The selection of this technology was based on criteria of efficiency, regulatory compliance, competitive costs, replicability, and traceability under the VWBA 2.0 framework. Additionality is guaranteed because the recovered water would not exist without this intervention; intentionality is demonstrated in the project’s design for water resilience; and traceability is ensured through digital records and independent verifications.
The benefits are multiple and quantifiable: more than 100,000 m³ of water reused per year, significant reduction of BOD and TSS in the final effluent, elimination of polluting discharges, and a smaller chemical footprint in cleaning and cooling processes. Environmentally, the project helps mitigate emissions associated with groundwater pumping and effluent discharge, while preserving biodiversity in the basin. Socially, it generates supply stability, improves water security, and strengthens the company’s social license, in addition to creating jobs in operation and maintenance. Economically, it reduces water costs, ensures operational resilience, and elevates Musashi’s ESG reputation in the market.
Finally, the model is highly replicable. It can be implemented in other industrial hubs in Brazil and Latin America where water stress conditions exist, regulations favor reuse, and public–private partnerships are available. Competitiveness versus other alternatives is sustained by its favorable cost/benefit, full compliance with environmental standards, and its contribution to global objectives such as Agenda 2030 and the CEO Water Mandate. Thus, Musashi not only solves a local problem: it offers a scalable solution that accelerates the achievement of SDG targets in multiple territories.
Project implementation is carried out under a structured, phased approach that ensures control at each stage and allows rigorous technical validation before moving on to the next. Everything begins with a baseline diagnosis, measuring the quantity and quality of effluents generated, the characteristics of the exploited aquifers, and the indicators of water stress in the basin. This stage provides the “without project” scenario, against which the real benefits of reuse will be compared.
The second phase corresponds to the technical design and sizing of the Effluent Treatment Plant, which incorporates MBBR biological processes, sand filtration, activated carbon, and disinfection. In this stage, flows and control parameters are defined and digital monitoring instruments are integrated: flow meters, quality probes, IoT sensors, and a SCADA system that centralizes information.
Subsequently, physical installation and commissioning are carried out, with an estimated period of six months for equipment assembly, hydraulic tests, and process validation. Once operation begins, a three-month technical validation period is established with external audits, laboratory analyses, and sensor calibration to ensure compliance with CONAMA Resolution 430/2011 and CPRH standards.
The final stage corresponds to continuous operation, managed under a BOT scheme, guaranteeing 24/7 availability and a nominal capacity of 12 m³/h. The system is monitored in real time, with automatic alarm reports in case of deviations and with digital traceability supported by IoT and blockchain platforms, which document every cubic meter treated and reused. Physical traceability is ensured through flow records from the entry of effluents to final use in industrial processes and auxiliary services.
The governance model assigns clear responsibilities: the operator manages operation and maintenance; the project owner oversees performance and uses the regenerated water; environmental authorities validate regulatory compliance; and an external verifier certifies benefits under VWBA and WQBA. A monthly preventive maintenance plan and corrective maintenance in case of incidents are implemented, with contingency protocols that include redundant pumping systems and electrical backup. Monitoring is supported by key performance indicators: volumes treated, water quality, energy consumed, pollutants removed, and percentage substitution of groundwater. These data are permanently compared against the baseline to demonstrate additionality and permanence of benefits.
Continuous improvement is ensured with periodic updates to control software, feedback based on analysis of historical data, and the possibility of incorporating new technologies as regulatory and market demands evolve.
