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Wastewater Use in Agriculture: Challenges in Assessing Costs and Benefits

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Wastewater

Abstract

Estimating the benefits and costs of planned or unplanned, ongoing or future, water reuse projects is not without challenges. In additional to the common difficulties of applying cost benefits analysis in agriculture or for justifying the use of reclaimed wastewater, the chapter tries to present some particular challenges with respect to the assessment of wastewater irrigation in the developing country context where treatment might be minimal or lacking and irrigation an informal activity along wastewater canals as well as natural streams. Challenges start with the term ‘wastewater’, and the comparison of crop yields and farm incomes under wastewater and freshwater irrigation and cumulate in the difficulties of assessing and costing likely health and environmental impacts. Bottlenecks related more often to the correct quantification of differences or impacts than their economic valuation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As some examples will be used to describe possible traps and shortcomings in economic assessments we tried to focus as much as possible on cases where we can validate the approaches and the assumptions used.

  2. 2.

    A maximal one-week recall period for diarrheal related symptoms has been recommended (Arnold et al. 2013). As worm related infections can be without symptoms in otherwise healthy people, perception surveys are not recommended while a stool test (laboratory analysis) is the best option of verification.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Water Management Institute (IWMI), P.O. Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Pay Drechsel

  2. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    George Danso

  3. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, 175 Longwood Road South, L8P 0A1, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Manzoor Qadir

Authors
  1. Pay Drechsel
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  2. George Danso
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  3. Manzoor Qadir
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pay Drechsel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Int. Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Pay Drechsel

  2. United Nations University Institute for Water, Env. and Health, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Manzoor Qadir

  3. Agricultural Water Management, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    Dennis Wichelns

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Drechsel, P., Danso, G., Qadir, M. (2015). Wastewater Use in Agriculture: Challenges in Assessing Costs and Benefits. In: Drechsel, P., Qadir, M., Wichelns, D. (eds) Wastewater. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9545-6_8

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