Using stream water polluted with untreated wastewater in agriculture is controversial due to its combination of benefits and negative health impacts. Using data from a household survey, 'wastewater' and 'freshwater' farmers were analysed comparatively to examine the perceived impacts of irrigation water quality on farmers' health and to evaluate the extent of health damage. Probability of illness was estimated using the theory of utility-maximising behaviour of households subject to the conventional farm household production model, augmented by adding a health production function. Reduced model and instrumental variable probit specifications both show that perceived illness prevalence is significantly higher for household members working on wastewater irrigation farms than for those working with freshwater. Our data entails econometric complications (e.g., endogeneity of farmers' behaviour, unobserved location-specific characteristics). Ignoring these will result in underestimation of the value of policy interventions designed to reduce potential health damage of wastewater use in irrigation

In this article the authors assess the empirical challenges of estimating the costs and benefits of using wastewater in agriculture. The wide variation in the characteristics of wastewater irrigation complicates efforts to estimate costs and benefits, and to transfer such estimates across locations. They examine wastewater use in four countries in Africa and Asia, where research has been conducted for many years. They find a significant patchwork of results, but no satisfying overall assessment. The authors suggest focusing on the cost-effectiveness of interventions for risk reduction, rather than economic analyses of the full range of costs and benefits of using wastewater in agriculture

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The land management and governance system is the underlying cause for capitalizing the opportunity or facing the challenge of rapid urbanization. The urban land lease policy of Ethiopia, least urbanized but fast urbanizing country, is considered the most influential policy that determines the investment environment in the cities. It lays the foundation for acquiring 'land use right' through auction or negotiation. This paper quantitatively examines its implementation using data obtained from the urban land auction market in the country's capital. The study found a very high divergence between the auction guide-prices (set by the government) and the sale prices (offered by land developers, investors), where the latter is significantly higher than the former. Besides, the variation is found to be significantly explained by a number of factors including floor price, plot size, plot use type, plot grade, plot location, and time of the auction. The study found that the urban land market is not majorly driven by economic rational. The land market system is not only highly exposed to speculations but also DRAFT its urban land acquisition is majorly a secondary market, with no policy-ground. As a result, the market is characterized by high inefficiency and weak institutional capacity. The study also identifies feasible options that consider the unique features of Ethiopian cities for efficient and effective urban land management so that they can capitalize on the opportunities from the rapid urbanization process in the country.