EU Introduces Standards for Use of Reclaimed Water for Irrigation

Summary

The European Union is imple­ment­ing new reg­u­la­tions to pro­mote the use of reclaimed water for agri­cul­tural irri­ga­tion in order to address water avail­abil­ity and qual­ity issues exac­er­bated by cli­mate change. The pro­posed mea­sures include har­mo­nized min­i­mum stan­dards for water qual­ity to ensure the safety of using treated urban waste­water for irri­ga­tion, with the next step being approval by the European Parliament before becom­ing law.

The European Union (EU) is mov­ing for­ward with new mea­sures to pro­mote the use of reclaimed water for agri­cul­tural irri­ga­tion. The aim of the new EU reg­u­la­tion is to improve water avail­abil­ity and qual­ity for the irri­ga­tion of farm­land through the use of treated urban waste­water. The ini­tia­tive addresses the risk of drought-like con­di­tions increas­ing pres­sure on water resources due to new, cli­mate-change fueled weather pat­terns.

Italy, Spain and Greece have already been using reclaimed water from cities to irri­gate farm­land. Other coun­tries have not yet explored this method to recy­cle and reuse waste­water and only a hand­ful of EU mem­ber states have national stan­dards or leg­is­la­tion on water reuse.

In the cur­rent con­text of cli­mate change and the threat of water short­ages, using recy­cled water on farms may become increas­ingly nec­es­sary. For these rea­sons, the EU has come up with stan­dards for water qual­ity for agri­cul­tural irri­ga­tion.

The newly pro­posed mea­sures include min­i­mum stan­dards for water qual­ity across the EU to ensure that the use of retreated waste­water for the water­ing of crops is safe for the envi­ron­ment as well as human and ani­mal health.

The pro­posed leg­is­la­tion takes into account the var­ied geog­ra­phy and cli­mate across the EU and the fact that some coun­tries may not even need to use reclaimed water for irri­ga­tion.

On April 7, the Council of the EU adopted a ​“Position of the Council at first read­ing with a view to the adop­tion of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on min­i­mum require­ments for water reuse.”

The pro­posed mea­sures were first announced in June 2019 dur­ing the Romanian Presidency of the EU.

“Water is a pre­cious resource. Today is an impor­tant step in putting in place new rules which will enable us to reclaim water in a way which is safe for humans and ani­mals, and good for the envi­ron­ment,” said Ioan Deneș, the Romanian min­is­ter of waters and forests. ​“It makes sense to set har­mo­nized min­i­mum stan­dards for reclaimed water qual­ity and for com­pli­ance mon­i­tor­ing so that our farm­ers can use reclaimed water. Part of this is about learn­ing from the expe­ri­ence of some mem­ber states which have been suc­cess­fully reusing water for decades.”

The next step in the EU pol­icy-mak­ing process is for the European Parliament to approve the draft leg­is­la­tion before it becomes law.

Heat waves, insuf­fi­cient rain­fall and water short­ages have pre­sented seri­ous chal­lenges to olive grow­ers in recent years and had a neg­a­tive impact on olive oil pro­duc­tion.

• EU press release


• Text of pro­posed leg­is­la­tion