This book is written for practitioners, researchers and graduate students in environmental and public health, sanitary and agricultural engineering, and wastewater irrigation management in developing countries. In particular, it should be useful for all those working to assess and mitigate health risks from the use of wastewater and faecal sludge in agriculture, under conditions where wastewater treatment is absent or inadequate to safeguard public health. In this respect, the book builds on and complements the international Guidelines for the Safe Use of Wastewater, Excreta and Greywater published in 2006 by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Environment Programme. The book adds new data on the cost-effectiveness of treatment and post-treatment measures for health-risk reduction, discusses ways to facilitate behaviour-change towards safer practices and adds new dimensions to reuse-oriented governance of wastewater. The overall sequence of sections addresses key issues concomitant with wastewater irrigation in developing countries (risk assessment, risk mitigation, wastewater use governance), while the individual chapters aim at concise information primarily on microbiological but also chemical risks. The authors link water and health to the establishment and implementation of effective, affordable and efficient options for risk reduction. Targeting developing countries, the book also tries to address situations where legislation and institutional capacities are constraints and where the availability of data for risk assessments is limited. We expect that the book will influence further applied multidisciplinary research on wastewater use related risk and its mitigation. This volume would not have been possible without the support of the International Development Research Centre and the Google Foundation. Numerous other funding bodies supported work presented in individual chapters. Special acknowledgement is due to the Challenge Program on Water and Food of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for their continued support. French version available here: http://www.susana.org/lang-en/library/library?view=ccbktypeitem&type=2&id=1719

Bibliographic information

Drechsel, P. et al. (2010). Wastewater Irrigation and Health Assessing and Mitigating Risk in Low-Income Countries International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Earthscan, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), ISBN 978-1-84407-795-3

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Recommended by SuSanA (other than SuSanA publications)Food security and productive sanitation (WG5)Greywater or wastewaterRuralEnglish

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