# Regulation (EU) 2020/741 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 2020 on minimum requirements for water reuse (Text with EEA relevance), Division: Minimum requirements applicable to reclaimed water intended for agricultural irrigation

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

The reclaimed water quality classes and the permitted uses and irrigation methods for each class are set out in Table 1. The minimum requirements for water quality are set out in Table 2 of point (a). The minimum frequencies and performance targets for monitoring reclaimed water are set out in Table 3 (routine monitoring) and Table 4 (validation monitoring) of point (b).
Crops belonging to a given category shall be irrigated with reclaimed water of the corresponding minimum reclaimed water quality class as set out in Table 1, unless appropriate additional barriers as referred to in point (c) of Article 5(4) are used, which result in achieving the quality requirements set out in Table 2 of point (a). Such additional barriers may be based on the indicative list of preventive measures referred to in point 7 of Annex II or in any other equivalent national or international standards, e.g. the standard ISO 16075-2.
Table 1 – Classes of reclaimed water quality and permitted agricultural use and irrigation method
If the same type of irrigated crop falls under multiple categories of Table 1, the requirements of the most stringent category shall apply.
Drip irrigation (also called trickle irrigation) is a micro-irrigation system capable of delivering water drops or tiny streams to the plants and involves dripping water onto the soil or directly under its surface at very low rates (2–20 litres/hour) from a system of small-diameter plastic pipes fitted with outlets called emitters or drippers.
In the case of irrigation methods which imitate rain, special attention should be paid to the protection of the health of workers or bystanders. For this purpose, appropriate preventive measures shall be applied.
Minimum reclaimed water quality class
Crop category
Irrigation method
A
All food crops consumed raw where the edible part is in direct contact with reclaimed water and root crops consumed raw
All irrigation methods
B
Food crops consumed raw where the edible part is produced above ground and is not in direct contact with reclaimed water, processed food crops and non-food crops including crops used to feed milk- or meat-producing animals
All irrigation methods
C
Food crops consumed raw where the edible part is produced above ground and is not in direct contact with reclaimed water, processed food crops and non-food crops including crops used to feed milk- or meat-producing animals
Drip irrigation or other irrigation method that avoids direct contact with the edible part of the crop
D
Industrial, energy and seeded crops
All irrigation methods

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2020/741/annex/I/section/2/division/1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2020-741/annex-I/section-2/division-1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.