ABSTRACT
Informal reuse of wastewater is a booming economic activity that benefits farmers and irrigators privately and also the local economies and food supply, but also entails significant health costs, mostly borne by the public. The social nature of these costs justifies public investments in incentives to promote safe reuse of wastewater and minimize risk along the entire value chain to turn this unsafe informal activity into a safe and formal one with shared rewards for all the stakeholders. Variations exist in terms of water quality, that is level of treatment or dilution, scale of use, water access, related costs/fees, market penetration, risk awareness along the value chain, enforcement of safety measures, etc. In most cases of indirect use, that is where wastewater and freshwater are mixed, the water is perceived as a natural and allocated to framers according to freshwater rules.
