The social acceptability and valuation of recycled water in Crete: A study of consumers' and farmers' attitudes

This paper investigates the Willingness to Use (WTU) and Willingness to Pay (WTP) for recycled water in agriculture. We report results from surveys of farmers and consumers on the island of Crete, Greece. Crete is suffering from an increasingly severe water shortage coupled with declining groundwater supplies, therefore the wider use of recycled water is an important policy priority. We have investigated WTU and WTP for two crops with two different levels of water treatment. The mean WTP for 1 cm3 of recycled water was 0.15€ for the irrigation of both olive trees and tomato crops, namely 55% of the fresh water price. The mean WTP for olive oil produced from olive trees irrigated with recycled water was 2.65€, namely 88% of its current market price. We have found that both attitudinal factors, such as environmental awareness and economic factors, such as freshwater prices and incomes, are significant in explaining the WTU and WTP for recycled water and products produced using it, but that important differences exist between farmers and consumers.