The specialist group deals with water and wastewater systems serving individual houses, a cluster of houses or a community. The group considers the use of localized systems will help in recycling and reuse of wastewater. This will also enhance and promote the closing of water and nutrient cycles.

The group believes that water and sanitation can be made available to the entire population of the world only by adopting localized systems. This will enable people’s participation in the control and management of the systems.

Recently, package systems for supply of water and treatment of waste including industrial waste has become available and accepted by the communities all over the world.

The Joint conference on the 12th IWA Specialist Conference on Small Water and Wastewater Systems and the 4th Specialized Conference on Resource Oriented Sanitation (EcoSan) was held in Mascut, Oman in November 2014.

The 13th International Conference of the specialists group will be held in Athens, Greece, 15-17 June 2016.