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Economic implications of agricultural reuse of treated wastewater in Israel: A statewide long-term perspective

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  • Reznik, Ami
  • Feinerman, Eli
  • Finkelshtain, Israel
  • Fisher, Franklin
  • Huber-Lee, Annette
  • Joyce, Brian
  • Kan, Iddo

Abstract

We develop an Israeli version of the Multi-Year Water Allocation System (MYWAS) mathematical programming model to conduct statewide, long-term analyses of three topics associated with agricultural reuse of wastewater. We find that: (1) enabling agricultural irrigation with treated wastewater significantly reduces the optimal capacity levels of seawater and brackish-water desalination over the simulated 3-decade period, and increases Israel's welfare by 3.3 billion USD in terms of present values; (2) a policy requiring desalination of treated wastewater pre-agricultural reuse, as a method to prevent long-run damage to the soil and groundwater, reduces welfare by 2.7 billion USD; hence, such a policy is warranted only if the avoided damages exceed this welfare loss; (3) desalination of treated wastewater in order to increase freshwater availability for agricultural irrigation is not optimal, since the costs overwhelm the generated agricultural benefits. We also find the results associated with these three topics to be sensitive to the natural recharge of Israel's freshwater aquifers, and to the rate at which domestic-water demand evolves due to population and income growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Reznik, Ami & Feinerman, Eli & Finkelshtain, Israel & Fisher, Franklin & Huber-Lee, Annette & Joyce, Brian & Kan, Iddo, 2017. "Economic implications of agricultural reuse of treated wastewater in Israel: A statewide long-term perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 222-233.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:135:y:2017:i:c:p:222-233
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.01.013
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    Cited by:

    1. Sudipa Choudhury & Apu Kumar Saha & Mrinmoy Majumder, 2020. "Optimal location selection for installation of surface water treatment plant by Gini coefficient-based analytical hierarchy process," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 4073-4099, June.
    2. Kimhi, A., 2018. "Integrated Micro-Macro Structural Econometric Framework for Assessing Climate-Change Impacts on Agricultural Production and Food Markets," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276972, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Saeid Ghafoori & Hossein Hassanpour Darvishi & Hossein Mohamadvali Samani & Pezhman Taherei Ghazvinei, 2021. "Enhancing the Method of Decentralized Multi-Purpose Reuse of Wastewater in Urban Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Jeong, Hanseok & Bhattarai, Rabin & Adamowski, Jan & Yu, David J., 2020. "Insights from socio-hydrological modeling to design sustainable wastewater reuse strategies for agriculture at the watershed scale," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    5. Ami Reznik & Ariel Dinar, 2022. "Local conditions and the economic feasibility of urban wastewater recycling in irrigated agriculture: Lessons from a stochastic regional analysis in California," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 2115-2130, December.
    6. A. Reznik & E. Feinerman & I. Finkelshtain & I. Kan & F. Fisher & A. Huber-Lee & B. Joyce, 2016. "The Cost of Covering Costs: A Nationwide Model for Water Pricing," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(04), pages 1-39, December.
    7. Batool, Fauzia & Hussain, M. Iftikhar & Nazar, Sonaina & Bashir, Humayun & Khan, Zafar Iqbal & Ahmad, Kafeel & Alnuwaiser, Maha Abdallah & Yang, Hsi-Hsien, 2023. "Potential of sewage irrigation for heavy metal contamination in soil–wheat grain system: Ecological risk and environmental fate," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    8. Ami Reznik & Ariel Dinar & Francesc Hernández-Sancho, 2019. "Treated Wastewater Reuse: An Efficient and Sustainable Solution for Water Resource Scarcity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(4), pages 1647-1685, December.
    9. Alfredo Valdes Ramos & Elsa N. Aguilera Gonzalez & Gloria Tobón Echeverri & Luis Samaniego Moreno & Lourdes Díaz Jiménez & Salvador Carlos Hernández, 2019. "Potential Uses of Treated Municipal Wastewater in a Semiarid Region of Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-23, April.
    10. Kan, Iddo & Reznik, Ami & Kaminski, Jonathan & Kimhi, Ayal, 2023. "The impacts of climate change on cropland allocation, crop production, output prices and social welfare in Israel: A structural econometric framework," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    11. Yiğit Sağlam, 2019. "Welfare Implications of Water Scarcity: Higher Prices of Desalination," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 995-1022, August.
    12. Bar-Nahum, Ziv & Reznik, Ami & Finkelshtain, Israel & Kan, Iddo, 2022. "Centralized water management under lobbying: Economic analysis of desalination in Israel," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wastewater reuse; Agriculture; Water management; Economics; Modeling; Desalination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

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