Strategies and Policies for the Development of Wastewater Treatment Technologies in Iran

Designing and promoting innovative methods with up-to-date and localized technical solutions can be helpful in efficient management of the wastewater treatment industry and achievement of sustainable development. Despite this, prevailing laws and policies are sometimes ineffective or do not support the desired results. Therefore, the preparation of an upstream strategic document by taking into account the opportunities and challenges, particularly in the field of wastewater treatment technology development, can identify gaps and take measures to resolve them in order to refer the necessary measures to the relevant agencies. In this research, in addition to the future studies on the development of wastewater treatment technologies, vision and quantitative indicators for the next twenty years were determined. Accordingly, the opinions of 58 managers of the country's water and wastewater department, industry experts and university professors were used through the meetings of the technical and steering committee. The basis for formulating the actions and policies required in this research is the Technological Innovation System (TIS) based on components for the development, dissemination and exploitation of technology. In this research, while enumerating the challenges of the development of wastewater technology in the country, the relevant policies have been explained.