The role of information on farmers’ willingness to use recycled water for irrigation K.P. Tsagarakis* and N. Georgantzís** * Inst. of Iraklio, National Agric. Res. Foundation, 71307 Iraklio, Greece (E-mail: kandila@her.forthnet.gr) ** LINEEX and Univ. Jaume I, Economics Dept. Campus Riu Sec, Castellon 12071, Spain Abstract In this paper are identified several factors which affect a potential user’s willingness to use recycled water for agricultural irrigation. This study is based on the results of a survey carried out among farmers in the island of Crete, Greece. It was found that a higher level of income and education are positively correlated with a respondent’s willingness to use recycled water. Income and education are also positively correlated with a potential user’s sensitivity to information on the advantages of using non-conventional water resources. Overall, extra information on the advantages of recycled water has a statistically significant impact on reported degrees of willingness to use recycled water. Keywords Information; water recycling; water valuation; willingness to pay; willingness to use Introduction Agricultural and landscape irrigation with domestic wastewater has been practiced for cen- turies in many parts of the world. One of the salient characteristics of Minoan civilization was the architectural and hydraulic function of the rain water and sewerage systems in its palaces and cities. In the entire structures of most Minoan palaces and cities nothing is more remarkable than their elaborate sewerage systems, while indications of utilization of waste- water for agricultural irrigation go back to ca. 3000–1100 B.C. (Angelakis and Spyridakis, 1996). Although irrigation with sewage effluents is, in itself, an effective way of waste- water treatment (such as in slow-rate land treatment), some degree of treatment must be achieved before sewage can be used for agricultural or landscape irrigation. This pre- application treatment is necessary for the protection of public health, the prevention of nui- sance conditions during storage and application and the prevention, of damage to crops and soils (Asano, 1998). The objective of this study was to investigate the people’s knowledge of water recycling, their willingness to use such water and the effect additional information has on their willingness to use reclaimed wastewater, according to socioeconomic parameters. This study partly confirms some of the major findings of an EU survey on what Europeans think about the environment (EU, 1999). It shows that people’s knowledge of environmental issues increases with income and education levels. Furthermore, educated and prosperous people express their concern about environmental issues and, in particular the highly educated know enough to take some positive action. It is known that well informed people, and especially users, have been proved useful to gain public acceptance and support for water recycling projects and increase their willingness to pay for them. Methodology Economic valuation based on survey questions (Smith, 2000; Carson, 2000) has been broadly criticised (Cummings and Harrison, 1994) for its lack of motivation in getting respondents to reveal their true preferences. This has lead to an increasing number of stud- ies aimed at quantifying and controlling for possible biases (Blackburn et al., 1994). Water Science and Technology: Water Supply Vol 3 No 4 pp 105–113 © IWA Publishing 2003 105