Wastewater has high potential for reuse in agriculture, an opportunity for increasing food and environmental security by avoiding direct pollution of rivers and surface water, conserving significant proportion of river basin waters, and disposing off municipal wastewater in a low-cost, sanitary way. However, untreated wastewater for irrigation poses a number of health and environmental risks at various levels. Though wastewater use in agriculture is an age-old practice, there is lack of systematic information on the subject, particularly on issues such as farmers’ needs and preferences and health and environmental risks. This project aimed at contributing to the existing knowledge on urban wastewater use for agriculture in India by:

1. undertaking primary research on current practices, cost/benefits of wastewater use in agriculture vis-à-vis social, economic, health and environmental parameters, through in-depth case studies in four locations;
2. identifying best practices for mitigation of negative impacts;
3. assessing replicability of potential cost-effective technologies, and
4. carrying out nationwide assessments of the extent and significance of wastewater use.

To discuss these issues with representatives from the government/local municipal bodies, civil society, NGOs and academia, WII organized a national workshop on January 31, 2006, at the United Services Institution in New Delhi.
See final proceedings of the national workshop.
The project sensitized stakeholders at different levels about the negative impacts of urban wastewater use in agriculture and possible mitigation strategies with the purpose of helping water users, development organizations, governments and research organizations to make sound investments in water for agricultural development. For the purpose of this study, peri-urban and rural areas around the cities of New Delhi (Yamuna river basin), Ahmedabad (Sabarmati river basin), Kanpur (Ganga river basin) and Kolkata (Kolkata Wetlands) were studied.