Worldwide Regulations and Guidelines for Agricultural Water Reuse: A Critical Review

Abstract

Water reuse is gaining momentum as a beneficial practice to address the water crisis, especially in the agricultural sector as the largest water consumer worldwide. With recent advancements in wastewater treatment technologies, it is possible to produce almost any water quality. However, the main human and environmental concerns are still to determine what constituents must be removed and to what extent. The main objectives of this study were to compile, evaluate, and compare the current agricultural water reuse regulations and guidelines worldwide, and identify the gaps. In total, 70 regulations and guidelines, including Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), the United States (state by state), European Commission, Canada (all provinces), Australia, Mexico, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine, Oman, China, Kuwait, Israel, Saudi Arabia, France, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Italy were investigated in this study. These regulations and guidelines were examined to compile a comprehensive database, including all of the water quality monitoring parameters, and necessary treatment processes. In summary, results showed that the regulations and guidelines are mainly human-health centered, insufficient regarding some of the potentially dangerous pollutants such as emerging constituents, and with large discrepancies when compared with each other. In addition, some of the important water quality parameters such as some of the pathogens, heavy metals, and salinity are only included in a small group of regulations and guidelines investigated in this study. Finally, specific treatment processes have been only mentioned in some of the regulations and guidelines, and with high levels of discrepancy.

Evaluation of bacterial quality of Oreochromis niloticus samples of Lake Manzala, Egypt

“…Regarding Fecal coliforms in fish, they outline the level of pollution of their environment scince they are not the normal flora of bacteria in fish [50] and are the most common bacteria of thermo-tolerant coliforms [51]. Faecal coliform in fish .In the current study, all tested fish samples were contaminated by fecal coliforms bacteria (FCB).…”

Detection of Enteric Viruses and Bacterial Indicators in a Sewage Treatment Center and Shallow Water Bay

“…Most regulations and guidelines for reusing treated wastewater for irrigation utilizes total coliforms, fecal coliforms, or E. coli as indicator microorganisms to monitor the bacterial quality [50]. However, there is no universal agreement regarding these guidelines between different countries and organizations.…”

“…However, there is no universal agreement regarding these guidelines between different countries and organizations. For example, the following countries have different guidelines for the microbial quality of irrigation water (cfu/100 mL): Italy (E. coli ≤ 10), Jordan (E. coli or Fecal Coliform ≤ 100), Kuwait (Total Coliforms ≤ 400), Saudi Arabia (Thermo-Tolerant Coliform ≤ 1000), and Bahrain (Total Coliforms ≤ 1000) [22,50]. In a study by Stine et al, they estimated Salmonella concentrations range that would result in a 10−4 annual risk of infection from using treated wastewater between 1.5 × 10 2 cfu/100 mL and 7.2 × 10 6 cfu/100 mL [51].…”

Optimization of Cultivation Condition of Newly Isolated Strain Chlorella Sorokiniana pa.91 for CO2 Bio-Fixation and Nutrients Removal From Real Municipal Wastewater: Impact of Temperature and Light Intensity

“…for municipal wastewater could reduce COD concentration below the standard for agriculture reuse water (50 COD-mgL-1) (Shoushtarian and Negahban-Azar, 2020).…”