WASH Library title: Guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater. Volume IV

WHO -Geneva, CH, World Health Organization, 2006. Guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater. Volume IV: Excreta and greywater use in agriculture. [online] Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization (WHO).

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This volume of the WHO guidelines describes the present state of knowledge regarding the impacts of excreta and greywater use in agriculture on the health of product consumers, workers and their families and local communities. Health hazards are identified for each group at risk, and appropriate health protection measures to mitigate the risks are discussed.

The guidelines are to be used as the basis for the development of international and national approaches (including standards and regulations) to managing the health risks from hazards associated with excreta and greywater use in agriculture, as well as providing a framework for national and local decision-making. The information provided is also relevant where there is unintentional use of excreta and greywater.

The Guidelines provide an integrated preventive management framework for safety applied from the point of household excreta and greywater generation to the consumption of products grown with treated excreta applied as fertilizers or treated greywater used for irrigation purposes. They describe reasonable minimum requirements of good practice to protect the health of people using treated excreta or greywater or consuming products grown with these for fertilizer or irrigation purposes and provide information that is then used to derive health-based targets. Neither the minimum good practices nor the health-based targets are mandatory limits. The preferred approaches adopted by national or local authorities towards implementation of the Guidelines, including health-based targets may vary depending on local conditions, as well as knowledge of routes of exposure, the nature and severity of hazards, and the effectiveness of health protection measures available.

Subjects: wastewater recycling | sullage | excreta use | agriculture | guidelines | health aspects | health hazards | environmental protection | monitoring | social aspects | cultural aspects | economic aspects | financing | policies | implementation | planning | sdisan;