Fighting for the right to use wastewater: what drives the use of untreated wastewater in a peri-urban village of Faisalabad, Pakistan?

Abstract

This case study from Chakera village, Faisalabad City, Pakistan describes the transition from canal-water irrigation to wastewater irrigation over a period of several decades. It shows that while the initial motivation for wastewater use was water scarcity and a lack of choice, farmers soon realized there were benefits associated with this alternative water supply. In the subsequent decades, they made great efforts and overcame organizational, infrastructural and legal obstacles to establish wastewater irrigation as the only irrigation on most of the village's agricultural area.

Keywords:

• irrigation
• Punjab
• water scarcity
• coping strategies

Notes

1. Focus here is on domestic sewage with limited or no contamination with industrial or commercial effluent.

2. Only 1% of wastewater in all Pakistan is treated before being discharged directly into rivers and drains, while 2 million tonnes of urban excrement are produced every year, of which an estimated 50% ends up in the water (Pakistan EPA 2005.).

3. Values are calculated from Pakistani Rupees (PKRS), for which the conversion rate at the time of the survey (July 2006) was $1.00 US = PKRS 60.6. We report all values in US dollars throughout the manuscript.