Use of treated municipal wastewater in irrigated agriculture—Review of some practices in Spain and Greece

Approximately, seventy (70) percent of world water use including all the water diverted from rivers and pumped from underground is used for agricultural irrigation, so that the reuse of treated municipal wastewater for purposes such as agricultural and landscape irrigation reduces the amount of water that needs to be extracted from natural water sources as well as reducing discharge of wastewater to the environment. Thus, treated municipal wastewater is a valuable water source for recycling and reuse in the Mediterranean countries and other arid and semi-arid regions which are confronting increasing water shortages. Treated wastewater reuse in agriculture is a common practice in the Mediterranean countries and there is a considerable interest in the long-term effects of treated wastewater on crops intended for human consumption. This paper reviews the fundamentals of agricultural irrigation using treated municipal wastewater and the status of municipal wastewater reuse in Greece and Spain with studies related to the effects on soils and plants.