Wastewater Irrigation and Health: Assessing and Mitigating Risk in Low-Income Countries
Wastewater Irrigation and Health: Assessing and Mitigating Risk in Low-Income Countries
Wastewater use for agricultural irrigation can have multiple benefits for almost all countries, but it is particularly beneficial and cost-effective in low-income arid and semi-arid countries. In such areas additional low-cost water resources can have a high payoff in human welfare and health, with increased possibilities for food production and increased employment opportunities for poor population groups living in the peripheries of towns and cities, which are the source of copious wastewater streams.
However, in humid areas of low- and middle-income countries, wastewater flows from large urban areas are untreated and laden with the full spectrum of excreted bacterial, viral, protozoan, and helminthic pathogens endemic in the community, thus presenting a serious health risk when entering water sources used for irrigation.
Drechsel, Pay; Scott, C. A.; Raschid Sally, Liqa; Redwood, M.; Bahri, Akissa. (Eds.) 2010. Wastewater irrigation and health: assessing and mitigating risk in low-income countries. London, UK: Earthscan; Ottawa, Canada: International Development Research Centre (IDRC); Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 404p.
