Abstract
Water, soil, and waste are three key resources associated with agriculture and thus food production as they are closely related to each other. An integrated management of these three resources can bring more benefits to society through increased resource usage efficiency. This approach is commonly known as the Nexus Approach. Safe use of wastewater in agriculture (SUWA) is a simple but powerful example of the Nexus Approach in action. It demonstrates how the sustainable management of one resource in a nexus can benefit the other resources in the same nexus. Wastewater irrigation not only addresses the water demand issues in water stressed areas, but also helps us “recycle” the nutrients in it. The process begins in the waste sector, but the implementation of such a management model can ultimately make a positive impact on the water sector as well as in soil and land management. On a global scale, over 20 million hectares of agricultural land are irrigated using wastewater. Developing countries and countries in transition need clear institutional arrangements and skilled human resources to address the technical, institutional, and policy challenges related to SUWA. From the UN perspective, SUWA also supports achieving some of the key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Taking the wastewater irrigation in the Mezquital Valley in Mexico as an entry point, this chapter builds upon all above facts to provide an introduction to the book and also to illustrate SUWA as a Nexus Approach example.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Paillés Bouchez, C.A. (2016). Council for certification of irrigation with treated water in Mexico (Mexico). In H. Hettiarachchi & Ardakanian (Eds.) Safe use of wastewater in agriculture: Good practice examples (pp. 279–299). Dresden: United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES).
Caucci, S., & Hettiarachchi, H. (2017). Wastewater irrigation in the Mezquital Valley, Mexico: Solving a century-old problem with the nexus approach. In Proceedings of the International Capacity Development Workshop on Sustainable Management Options for Wastewater and Sludge, March 15–17, 2017, Mexico. Dresden: United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES).
DWA. (2008). Treatment steps for water reuse. In DWA-Topics. Hennef, Germany: Deutsche Vereinigung für Wasserwirtschaft, Abwasser und Abfall e. V. (German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste, DWA).
FAO. (2011). Agriculture and water quality interventions: A global overview. SOLAW Background Thematic Report—TR08. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
Hanjra, M. A., Blackwell, J., Carr, G., Zhang, F., & Jackson, T. M. (2012). Wastewater irrigation and environmental health: Implications for water governance and public policy. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 215(3), 255–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2011.10.003.
Hettiarachchi, H., & Ardakanian, R. (2016a). Environmental resources management and the nexus approach: Managing water, soil, and waste in the context of global change. Switzerland: Springer Nature.
Hettiarachchi, H., & Ardakanian, R. (2016b). Safe use of wastewater in agriculture: Good practice examples. Dresden, Germany: UNU-FLORES.
Lautze, J., Stander, E., Drechsel, P., Da Silva, A. K., & Keraita, B. (2014). Global experiences in water reuse. In Resource Recovery and Reuse Series 4. Colombo: International Water Management Institute (IWMI)/CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Publications/wle/rrr/resource_recovery_and_reuse-series_4.pdf.
Mahjoub, O. (2013). “Ateliers de sensibilisation au profit des agriculteurs et des femmes rurales aux risques liés à la réutilisation des eaux usées en agriculture: Application à la région de Oued Souhil, Nabeul, Tunisie” [Awareness-raising workshops for farmers and rural women about the risks related to the use of wastewater in agriculture: Applied to the area of Oued Souhil, Nabeul, Tunisia]. In UN-Water. Proceedings of the Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture, International Wrap-Up Event, June 26–28, 2013, Tehran. (In French.) www.ais.unwater.org/ais/pluginfile.php/550/mod_page/content/84/Tunisia_Ateliers%20de%20sensibilisation%20au%20profit%20des%20agriculteurs%20et%20des%20femmes%20rurales_Mahjoub.pdf.
Mekonnen, M. M., & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2016). Four billion people facing severe water scarcity. Science Advances, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500323.
O’Neill, M. (2015). Ecological sanitation—A logical choice? The development of the sanitation institution in a world society. Tampere, Finland: Tampere University of Technology.
SEI. (2005). Linking water scarcity to population movements: From global models to local experiences. Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI): Stockholm.
Siebe, C., Chapela-Lara, M., Cayetano-Salazar M., Prado B., & Siemens, J. (2016). Effects of more than 100 years of irrigation with Mexico city’s wastewater in the Mezquital Valley (Mexico). In H. Hettiarachchi & Ardakanian (Eds.) Safe use of wastewater in agriculture: Good practice examples (pp. 121–138). Dresden: United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES).
Transparency International. (2008). Global corruption report 2008: Corruption in the water sector. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publication/global_corruption_report_2008_corruption_in_the_water_sector.
UN. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. New York: United Nations.
UNEP. (2015a). Good practices for regulating wastewater treatment: Legislation, policies and standards. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). www.unep.org/gpa/documents/publications/GoodPracticesforRegulatingWastewater.pdf.
UNEP. (2015b). Options for decoupling economic growth from water use and water pollution. Report of the international resource panel working group on sustainable water management. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
UN-WATER. (2016). Towards a worldwide assessment of freshwater quality: A UN-water analytical brief. Geneva: UN-Water.
Voß, A., Alcamo, J., Bärlund, I., Voß, F., Kynast, E., Williams, R., et al. (2012). Continental scale modelling of in-stream river water quality: A report on methodology, test runs, and scenario application. Hydrological Processes, 26, 2370–2384.
WHO. (2006). Guidelines of the safe use of wastewater, excreta and grey water—Vol. 2: Wastewater use in agriculture. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization (WHO). www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/wastewater/wwuvol2intro.pdf.
WHO. (2016). Preventing disease through healthy environments: A global assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Press, World Health Organization. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/204585/1/9789241565196_eng.pdf.
WWAP. (2015). The united nations world water development report 2015: Water for a sustainable world united nations world water assessment programme (WWAP). Paris, France: UNESCO.
WWAP. (2016). The united nations world water development report 2016: Water and jobs. United nations world water assessment programme (WWAP). UNESCO: Paris, France.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 UNU-FLORES
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hettiarachchi, H., Caucci, S., Ardakanian, R. (2018). Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture: The Golden Example of Nexus Approach. In: Hettiarachchi, H., Ardakanian, R. (eds) Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74268-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74268-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74267-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74268-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)