Abstract
The reuse of treated water for agricultural irrigation is considered a promising option in regions facing water scarcity problems and there is an increasing number of reuse projects going on in southern European countries. The aim of this paper is to estimate the non-market benefits that society attaches to the use of reclaimed wastewater for agricultural purposes, as part of the economic assessment needed to evaluate the viability of this water management option. For this purpose, a contingent valuation study has been developed in the Segura River Basin in south-eastern Spain, interviewing 352 individuals from a representative sample of the basin’s population. Results show that the use of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation has significant non-market environmental benefits (mean willingness to pay of€5.13 per month per household, which adds up to a total annual value of €23.3 million). In terms of volume, these benefits represent €0.31 m–3. Therefore, it can be concluded that the non-market benefits of using reclaimed wastewater for agriculture justify its implementation, as they overcome the average treatment costs of €0.16-0.26 m–3. Additionally, the analysis of preference heterogeneity suggests that the use of reclaimed wastewater in agriculture is more acceptable to people if they are made aware of their current payment for water sanitation. The inclusion of these non-market benefits in the overall assessment of water policy options will lead to better informed and more efficient water management decisions.
Highlights
The agricultural sector is the main water user in the Mediterranean area, taking up 50 to 80% of available fresh water (Dworak et al, 2007)
The value people attach to unpriced natural resources and the services these resources provide is measured in monetary terms through the concept of individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP), or, alternatively, willingness to accept compensation
The standard procedure in CV, and the one followed in this study, is to remove protest responses from the analysis in order to obtain estimates that are unbiased by the protesters
Summary
The agricultural sector is the main water user in the Mediterranean area, taking up 50 to 80% of available fresh water (Dworak et al, 2007). Water demand from this sector is increasing and, while other sectors are likely to increase consumption in the near future, climate change is expected to intensify water scarcity in regions already under water stress (IPCC, 2007). The reuse of treated water for agricultural irrigation is considered a promising option in regions facing such problems (Bouwer, 1992; Scott et al, 2004; Birol et al, 2009). According to the European wastewater Directive (OJ, 1991), all wastewater has to be treated before it can be released into the public water domain. Before treated wastewater can be used in agriculture it requires an additional disinfection treatment, converting it to reclaimed wastewater. There are currently about 700 reuse projects in Europe, the majority of which in southern European countries (CIWEM, 2009)
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