The Wealth of Waste: The Economics of Wastewater Use in Agriculture

This Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) water report presents an economic framework for the assessment of the use of reclaimed water in agriculture, as part of a comprehensive planning process in water resource allocation strategies to provide for a more economically efficient and sustainable water utilization. It finds that use of reclaimed wastewater in agriculture has been reported in around 50 countries on what amounts to 10% of the world’s irrigated land. FAO notes that recycling urban wastewater and using it to grow food crops can help mitigate water scarcity problems and reduce water pollution, but underlines that the practice is not being as widely implemented as it should.