Understanding how water reuse practices interact with soil quality and agricultural productivity is central to NEWater’s mission. By integrating scientific research with local knowledge, the project builds a bridge between experimental innovation and real-world farming needs. During field visits across Mediterranean agricultural areas, the NEWater team has engaged directly with farmers to gather insights on wastewater reuse, soil salinity, and nutrient dynamics — issues that are critical to achieving long-term sustainability.
Listening to farmers, learning from experience
Through structured surveys and open discussions, farmers shared their firsthand experiences with treated wastewater irrigation — a practice increasingly adopted in response to water scarcity. These exchanges revealed not only the advantages of reclaimed-water use, such as improved nutrient availability, but also the challenges linked to salinity accumulation and soil structural changes over repeated irrigation cycles.
Participants described variations in crop performance, soil texture, and moisture retention that depend on water-quality characteristics and local environmental conditions. This dialogue provides NEWater researchers with invaluable empirical data that complement laboratory analyses and modelling efforts, ensuring that project outcomes remain both scientifically sound and practically relevant.
Linking field knowledge with scientific analysis
The collected data are helping researchers better understand how treated effluents influence soil fertility, nutrient balance, and microbial health. In particular, the surveys highlight the need to manage salt buildup — a common constraint when using reclaimed water — through strategies such as periodic freshwater flushing, soil amendments, or optimized irrigation scheduling.
By combining farmers’ local expertise with advanced soil and water analyses, NEWater aims to refine nature-based and low-energy treatment solutions that sustain soil productivity while preventing degradation. The field information also feeds into the project’s modelling and sustainability assessments (WP5), enabling region-specific evaluations of the environmental and economic trade-offs associated with wastewater reuse.
Co-designing sustainable water-reuse strategies
This participatory approach embodies NEWater’s vision: technologies and practices must be co-created with the communities that use them. Farmers’ insights guide the identification of best practices for irrigation management, helping researchers design reuse frameworks that are both technically feasible and socially acceptable.
By integrating local knowledge, NEWater ensures that the solutions developed are grounded in the real conditions of Mediterranean agriculture — balancing productivity, resource conservation, and ecological safety.
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