Deadline: 20-Jul-2025
The UN-Habitat is inviting expressions of interest for a country-scale assessment of the efficiency of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in wastewater treatment in Mexico. They are seeking a partner to conduct a study evaluating how effective NbS are in treating wastewater. The findings will contribute to global knowledge on sustainable water management and help shape policy and interventions in Mexico for better wastewater management, pollutant reduction, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission control.
UN-Habitat aims to improve equitable access to safe, affordable drinking water, sanitation, and sustainable water resource management, including wastewater treatment, recycling, and safe reuse. They support this by facilitating policy dialogue, sharing best practices, providing technical assistance for field projects, and supporting data collection and monitoring at local, national, and global levels to strengthen advocacy and policymaking.
The study’s main goal is to diagnose wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Mexico, focusing on a large pilot WWTP. It will assess the efficiency of NbS in removing pollutants to enable safe reuse of treated wastewater, including for human consumption. The study will also estimate total GHG emissions related to wastewater treatment generally and within the NbS process specifically.
UN-Habitat will enter into a Cooperation Agreement with the selected partner, offering a contract valued at US$12,000 for successful deliverables. The work is scheduled to start in September 2025 and must be completed within six months.
Deliverables include a report diagnosing Mexico’s WWTPs and their potential GHG emissions, a detailed methodology for analyzing physicochemical parameters of wastewater entering and leaving the NbS, a report on the wastewater quality and treatment efficiency of the NbS, a final comprehensive report, and an online presentation of methodology and results for potential international forums.
Expected activities include designing the research—defining scope, objectives, and methodology—and determining metrics for wastewater flow, pollutant concentrations, and GHG emissions. The partner will analyze the inventory of WWTPs in Mexico, focusing on those using NbS, their capacity, flow rates, and locations.
A pilot site will be selected to evaluate NbS impact on water quality and emissions. The research design will define which physicochemical parameters to test to evaluate NbS efficiency and explore possibilities for reusing treated water beyond irrigation, potentially for human consumption.
The study will include presenting and interpreting analysis methods for influent and effluent wastewater to assess how well the NbS improve treated water quality, considering permissible limits and measurement units.
Finally, the partner will prepare a comprehensive report detailing the study’s scope, methods, results, key findings, and conclusions to support informed decisions and advocacy.
For more information, visit UN-Habitat.
