Farmer perceptions regarding irrigation with treated wastewater in the West Bank, Tunisia, and Qatar

ABSTRACT

Heads of households, farmers, and experts in wastewater and agriculture in the West Bank, Tunisia and Qatar were engaged in consultations to understand their farming/gardening practices, perceived benefits and risks of using treated wastewater, willingness to pay for various qualities of water, safe handling practices, and knowledge of local organizations and regulatory agencies. Most view wastewater as unsafe for reuse in agriculture, and users feel local monitoring and oversight are insufficient. Improving transparency of wastewater management and providing extension about the true risks and benefits of this practice will improve the success and safety of future reuse projects.

KEYWORDS:

• Treated wastewater
• water reuse
• irrigation
• arid land
• adoption
• acceptance
• MENA

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the kind contributions of laboratory and field assistance by Eng. Abdalrazzaq Abu Rahma, Dr Ayman Rabi, Dr Amjad Assi, Dr Rachid Boukchina, Faiza Khalfali, Dr Basem Shomar, Nora Kuiper and Candace Rowell. A. Dare is thankful to the Purdue University Center for Global Food Security’s Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security grant programme, which made the fieldwork for this study possible, and to the Purdue University Global Engineering Program and the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering for their support. We acknowledge the Palestinian Hydrology Group, Institute of Arid Lands (Tunisia), and Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute for their cooperation in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security grant [205786] from the Purdue University Center for Global Food Security.