QUALITY STANDARDS FOR IRRIGATION WATERS

ISHS Acta Horticulturae 119: III International Symposium on Water supply and Irrigation in the open and under Protected Cultivation

QUALITY STANDARDS FOR IRRIGATION WATERS

Author:

P.E. Rijtema

Abstract:
Water quality criteria for agricultural purposes should provide information on the suitability of a water for irrigational use. The derived working levels will be based on either the reduction in crop production or on the accumulation of specific constituents in the crop that might affect human health unfavourably through the food chain.

The caracteristics of irrigation waters that appear to be most important in determining its quality are:

total concentration of soluble salts;
total chloride concentration;
relative proportion of sodium to other cations;
concentrations of specific ions that may be toxic to plants and humans.

Moreover, some of the influences of irrigation in horticulture on other multiple uses of water have been considered briefly.

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