The circular water economy is promoted as one solution to water scarcity, but its implementation is often limited to narrow strategies like water reuse and technical upgrading. In ideal practice, water circularity would constitute a broader systemic transition that accounts for how water risks, resources, and authority are distributed across sectors and geographies. This article focuses on how policies impact water allocation, risk management, governing accountability, and value-capture, and how water circularity objectives interact, sometimes unproductively, with economic, social, and other policy goals. The article also discusses how governance capacity deficits undermine the transformative potential of circular water strategies and overlook system-wide dynamics. We conclude by proposing that an effective circular water economy focuses on both processes and outcomes; it goes beyond narrow metrics, rules, and reuse targets to encompass the complex array of societal forces impacting and impacted by water supply.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343526000539?dgcid=coauthor

Tortajada, Cecilia; Hartley, Kris; Biswas, Asit; (2026). “Beyond water reuse: the circular water economy as a governance framework.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 82, 101657.