Willingness of farmers to use treated wastewater for irrigation in the West Bank, Palestine

ABSTRACT

Limited water resources are among the main obstacles to development in Palestine. This research investigates farmers’ perceptions and willingness to use treated wastewater (TWW) for irrigation. Despite the availability of large quantities of TWW, just 11% of the interviewed farmers use it in irrigation. Just 24% of them confirmed that they had participated in awareness workshops related to TWW, but 75% stated they would be willing to use TWW for irrigation. We find that the main obstacles to the use of TWW in irrigation are availability of freshwater, non-availability of TWW and psychological aversion.

KEYWORDS:

• Treated wastewater
• reuse
• irrigation
• farmers’ perceptions
• willingness to use
• West Bank

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and Cecilia Tortajada for valuable comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the University of Jordan in cooperation with Birzeit University. Thanks to all related organizations in the West Bank.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.