Water reuse for vine irrigation: from research to full-scale implementation

Water scarcity is a worldwide problem, which leads to unprecedented pressure on water supply in arid and semi-arid regions. Treating wastewater is an alternative water resource, therefore, its reuse for agricultural irrigation has been growing worldwide since the beginning of the 21st century. In several regions of wine-producing countries (e.g., Australia, California – USA, Spain), wastewater reuse appears to be the most accessible alternative, both financially and technically, for agricultural uses that notably do not require drinking water. From the summer of 2022, vine irrigation full-scale implementation will start with tertiary treated municipal wastewater in the French Languedoc region. This was made possible thanks to a collaborative research project conducted between 2013 and 2018 to address all potential health and environmental risks associated with this process. This research project was conducted in the south of France, with experimental and control plots both equipped with drip irrigation systems. All the results produced during the research project demonstrated the feasibility of applying this process for vine drip irrigation while effectively managing health and environmental risks and complying with the regulation (treated water microbiological quality). A social acceptance and economic study were also performed in order to broaden the scope of the project scalability evaluation.