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Environmental Sustainability pp 39–48Cite as

Recycled Water Irrigation in Australia

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Abstract

Access to water has been identified as one of the most limiting factors to economic growth in Australia’s horticultural sector. Water reclaimed from wastewater (sewage) is being increasingly recognised as an important resource, and the agricultural sector is currently the largest consumer of this resource. An overview of the Australian experience of using reclaimed wastewater to grow horticultural crops is presented in this chapter. The wastewater treatment process and governing regulations are discussed in relation to risk minimisation practices which ensure that this resource is used in a sustainable manner without impacting adversely on human health or the environment. A case study covering the socio-economic and environmental implications of recycled water irrigation is also presented.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank CRC CARE for providing funding (No 2-3-09-07/08) to undertake research on landfill site remediation; part of the review was derived from this project. The postdoctoral fellowship programme (PJ009828) with Dr Won-Il Kim at the National Academy of Agricultural Science, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea, supported Dr Kunhikrishnan’s contribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR), University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5095, Australia

    Balaji Seshadri, Nanthi S. Bolan & Ramya Thangarajan

  2. Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5095, Australia

    Balaji Seshadri, Nanthi S. Bolan & Ramya Thangarajan

  3. Chemical Safety Division, Department of Agro-Food Safety, National Academy of Agricultural Science, Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, 565-851, Republic of Korea

    Anitha Kunhikrishnan

  4. Department of Soil Science, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, 1207, Bangladesh

    Saikat Chowdhury

  5. Division of Land Resources and Environment Section, Department of Plant Sciences and Agricultural Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, KhonKaen University, KhonKaen, Thailand

    Thammared Chuasavathi

Authors
  1. Balaji Seshadri
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  2. Nanthi S. Bolan
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  3. Anitha Kunhikrishnan
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  4. Saikat Chowdhury
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  5. Ramya Thangarajan
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  6. Thammared Chuasavathi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nanthi S. Bolan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India

    P. Thangavel

  2. Plant Biotechnology, SBT, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

    G. Sridevi

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Seshadri, B., Bolan, N.S., Kunhikrishnan, A., Chowdhury, S., Thangarajan, R., Chuasavathi, T. (2015). Recycled Water Irrigation in Australia. In: Thangavel, P., Sridevi, G. (eds) Environmental Sustainability. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2056-5_2

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