|The urban populace is often cautioned about the vegetables they
eat, especially green leafy vegetables, as they are increasingly
grown with untreated sewage water. With mounting water scarcity,
farmers in the peripheries of urban areas are known to
increasingly use sewage or wastewater to grow vegetables, food
crops and fodder. The concern raised with this kind of
irrigation is that it constitutes a large part of the untreated
sewage discharged from the urban centres. Such usage triggers
contamination risks of health and environment. While doing an
exploration of wastewater use in irrigation in Gujarat, we came
across several local bodies (urban local bodies and panchayats)
selling wastewater for irrigation. Amongst them villages of
Kutch are noteworthy as they not only treat the water but also
sell it to farmers. The charges for these waters are much higher
than the charges of canal irrigation water in water abundant
areas of the state. This indicates that the wastewater
collection, treatment and reuse from