Wastewater: Facts & Issues

Wastewater: Facts & Issues

Half of the world’s people now live in towns and cities, a figure expected to reach two-thirds by 2050.
Agriculture is competing with industry and municipal users for safe water supplies. Urban wastewater is polluting natural rivers, streams and lakes in many developing countries. Of the wastewater produced globally 90% remains untreated, causing widespread pollution, especially in low-income countries.1 Every day about 200,000 urban dwellers in the city of Accra, Ghana, eat fast food with raw salad leaves produced with highly polluted irrigation water.2 The total land irrigated with raw or partially diluted wastewater is estimated at 20 million hectares in  50 countries, which is approximately 10% of total irrigated land.3
		Wastewater irrigation in urban farming is a ‘fact of life’ in most cities in the developing world. - Liqa Raschid-Sally, Senior Regional Researcher, IWMI West Africa
1 International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 2010. Wastewater use in agriculture: Not only an issue where water is scarce. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 4p. (IWMI Water Issue Brief 004). 2 Amoah, P., Drechsel, P., Abaidoo, R.C., Henseler, M. 2007. Irrigated urban vegetable production in Ghana: Microbiological contamination in farms and markets and associated consumer risk groups. J Water Health 5(3):455–466. 3 United Nations. 2003. Water for people, water for life: A joint report by the twenty three UN agencies concerned with freshwater. World Water Assessment Programme. Berghahn Books, New York: UNESCO Pub., 200 (p543)