Greywater as a water resource in agriculture: The acceptance and perception from Brazilian agricultural technicians
Juliano Rezende Mudadu Silva, Maurício de Oliveira Celeri, Alisson Carraro Borges, Raphael Bragança Alves Fernandes
Abstract
The use of greywater for agricultural purposes can contribute to water conservation, the resilience of family farming food systems, and food security, especially in regions with higher water deficits. However, the social acceptance of this practice has been poorly evaluated systematically and hinders the implementation due to the resulting uncertainty among decision-makers and other stakeholders in the management of alternative sources of water in agriculture. This study was designed in the concept of the Attitude and the Perceived Behavioral Control to investigate the acceptance and perception of risks and benefits of the use of greywater as an alternative water resource in agriculture and the personal environmental values and beliefs (New Ecological Paradigm scale) by 300 professionals of agricultural technicians from 12 meso-regions in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. In general, the technicians showed a positive attitude toward reusing greywater in agriculture. The willingness to consume food grown with greywater was the least positive aspect (59.3%) compared to the willingness to perform the practice (87.7%) and the belief in reusing greywater as an alternative water resource (81.7%). The result indicates a great potential for using greywater as an alternative water resource for irrigating non-food crops. The environmental position of the studied public was not a decisive guarantee for a final attitude towards the use of greywater in agriculture. The study identified a clear relationship between a positive acceptance to support the development of public policies for water reuse (81.7%) and the interviewee's local contexts of water scarcity, lack of sanitation, and socioeconomic conditions. This study contributes to the discussions about water reuse in agriculture and developing public wastewater reuse policies.