The pressure on water resources caused by accelerated urbanization, the inadequate management and disposal of wastewater and the implementation of sophisticated treatment systems which sometimes with low efficiency and coverage are some of the problems to be solved with alternative and innovative strategies that be in harmony with the recent trends on water management. One of these strategies is the decentralisation in wastewater treatment. In this article, it is proposed an overview of the state of the art and a review of successful cases worldwide, to identify technological, social, economic and environmental issues to be considered for implementation of decentralisation in treatment of municipal wastewater in Colombia. These aspects are a first step in building the conceptual model for the selection of decentralised - centralised treatment schemes.