KEY INCENTIVES FOR USING WASTEWATER FOR IRRIGATION PURPOSES: BEST WORLD PRACTICES

Abstract

Purpose: to determine the key incentives for developing irrigation in the regions of the country with a clear shortage of water resources through the use of domestic wastewater discharged from municipal sewage treatment plants. Discussion. The use of domestic wastewater for irrigation has been practiced by ancient civili-zations. In modern realities, as earlier, irrigation with domestic wastewater and water of vary-ing degrees of purification is most widely practiced by farmers and other consumers having land near municipal sewerage systems, which makes it easier to transport irrigation water and reduce financial costs for their post-treatment. In order to promote social and environmental policies on efficient wastewater disposal, various motivating mechanisms are used. The main positions that should be taken into account in the case of planning wastewater irrigation are highlighted. The data on using wastewater for irrigation in foreign practice are presented, the motivating mechanisms used to stimulate such usage and the current Russian and foreign standards used to assess the quality of treated wastewater are highlighted. In Russia, no addi-tional incentive mechanisms for wastewater post-treatment of in irrigated fields are used. The main incentive is the ability to avoid payments and fines for discharge of wastewater of inad-equate quality. Such an incentive works only for enterprises that carry out the removal and treatment of domestic wastewater, and there are no incentives for Russian farmers to develop wastewater for irrigation. Conclusions. Of particular importance are the financial indicators and economic benefits for the parties involved in the implementation of the process of irrigating crops with treated wastewater. If we focus on the international experience of motivating incentives, it is of par-ticular interest to vary the payment for irrigation water depending on its quality and consump-tion amount.

Keywords

• wastewater
• wastewater irrigation
• recyclable resources
• municipal treatment facilities
• chemical wastewater composition
• wastewater fertilizing potential
• acceptable indicators