Multi-criteria Methodology for the Selection of Sites for the Technological Reconversion of Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

Abstract

In Mexico, many municipal wastewater treatment plants (PTARM) are abandoned or working in precarious conditions, mainly due to high energy consumption and high maintenance and operation costs (MO). This research aims to develop a methodology for evaluating 26 PTARM within the state of Jalisco in Mexico, which are out of operation or in abandoned conditions to select one for its recovery and technological reconversion of a passive treatment system with reduced MO. The developed method consists of 20 items that evaluate different criteria using Likert scales, and we assigned weighted weights to each item according to an order of importance. The evaluation favored those PTARM that require a lower budget for their intervention and use passive treatment systems. We found that the developed method is replicable and adaptable to other regions with similar problems and opens the possibility, in some instances, of gradually recovering the existing infrastructure. Through this process, we identified and achieved the recovery of a PTARM with a reduced investment of public resources.