Agricultural wastewater reuse in Sicily

In Mediterranean countries, water shortage is becoming a problem of high concern affecting the local economy, mostly based on agriculture. In addition, often the problem is not only the scarcity of water in terms of average per capita, but the high cost to make water available at the right place, at the right time with the required quality. In these cases, an integrated approach for water resources management including wastewater is required. The management should also include wastewater reclamation and reuse, especially for agricultural irrigation. This study evaluates and compares the efficiency of two full-scale Horizontal SubSurface Flow Constructed Wetlands (H-SSF CWs), located in Southern Italy (Sicily), both in terms of water quality improvement (removal percentage) and achievement of Italian wastewater discharge and irrigation reuse limits. Moreover, the impact on tomato crops of drip and sub-drip irrigation with treated municipal wastewater, as well as effects of wastewater reuse on main production features, microbial soil and products contamination were investigated. The analysis of the reuse scenario confirms that, under controlled conditions, low-quality wastewater can be used to increase tomato crops production in water-scarce Mediterranean environments.