Farmers’ Demand for Recycled Wastewater in Cyprus: A Contingent Valuation Approach

This paper employs the contingent valuation (CV) method, to investigate Cypriot farmers’ willingness to adopt a new water resource, namely recycled wastewater, and to estimate farmers’ willingness to pay for varying quantities and qualities of recycled wastewater. A pilot CV study is undertaken with 97 farmers located in the Akrotiri aquifer area in Cyprus, a common-pool water resource with rapidly deteriorating water quality and quantity. The results reveal that farmers are willing to adopt this new water resource, and they derive the highest economic values from a recycled wastewater use program, which provides high quality recycled wastewater, and high water quantity in the aquifer.