In a report published on 27 October 2026, Euronews.com reported that a European project led by Greek and Italian experts had begun testing irrigation of olive trees with doubly treated wastewater in Gallipoli, southern Italy. The two-year ECO FLOW pilot has a budget of more than €1.5 million, with 75% financed by European cohesion policy and 25% by Greek and Italian funds Euronews.com.
Key takeaways
- ECO FLOW is reusing Gallipoli's treated wastewater for irrigation through a two-year pilot involving three rows of bacteria-resistant olive trees and three irrigation approaches Euronews.com.
- The project has a budget of more than €1.5 million, financed 75% by European cohesion policy and 25% by Greece and Italy Euronews.com.
- Monitoring has started and covers water, plant development, soil characteristics and the accumulation of substances in the soil around the experimental olive varieties Euronews.com.
- Monitoring has started and covers water, plant development, soil characteristics and the accumulation of substances in the soil around the experimental olive varieties Euronews.com.
- One participating farm reports that younger trees irrigated with treated water grew faster than four-year-old trees that had not yet started producing Euronews.com.
What happened
The pilot is being conducted in a field beside the Gallipoli water treatment station, where researchers are comparing well water, treatment-station water and a further-treated stream across three rows of olive trees resistant to Xylella fastidiosa Euronews.com. The goal is to determine how the irrigation sources affect fruit production while avoiding disposal of reusable water in the sea Euronews.com.
“We want to see how much fruit they produce and how they produce it. And that way we avoid wasting water that would otherwise end up in the sea,” said Rocco Protopapa of the Regional Agency for Irrigation and Forestry Activities Euronews.com.
At the Gallipoli purification station, water destined for ECO FLOW receives an additional treatment through a mini station based on hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet radiation Euronews.com. Fabrizio Dell'Anna, technical coordination and development officer for the Aquedotto Pugliese project team, said the combination forms a highly reactive molecule capable of degrading pollutants, although the required equipment was not available on the market Euronews.com.
The reactor is thermally insulated to limit temperature variations that could interfere with the hydrogen-peroxide process, and the team modified the system so water circulates and increases the number of reactive molecules available to attack contaminants Euronews.com. Monitoring is now under way, and the pilot is scheduled to run for two years Euronews.com.
Specification read
The reported project scale is experimental and field-based: three rows of bacteria-resistant olive trees and three irrigation approaches were tested, but the source did not report wastewater flow in cubic metres per day, treatment-plant capacity or population-equivalent loading Euronews.com. Buyers therefore cannot use the report to size a municipal, industrial or agricultural reuse plant without hydraulic, contaminant and regulatory inputs.
This project bears on the advanced-treatment stage of a reuse train rather than on upstream screening, primary settling or biological treatment. Specifically, it adds hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet radiation at a pilot mini station to further treat water from a purification facility before irrigation Euronews.com. For an industrial plant, that means assessing the performance, controls, temperature sensitivity and downstream irrigation requirements of the additional chemical and UV steps; broader process treatment can be compared with the approaches in the Chemical and Water Purification resources.
If your plant serves a wastewater flow in cubic metres per day, with specified BOD and COD in milligrams per litre, an industrial discharge profile and pressure to deliver fit-for-purpose reuse water, this pilot indicates that advanced treatment may be needed beyond the basic purification stage; the source does not provide the flow, load, capacity, unit cost or lead time needed to specify or price it Euronews.com.
FAQ
What treatment stages does the Gallipoli reuse pilot cover?
The reported intervention is an additional purification step using hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet radiation at a mini station, followed by irrigation trials beside the Gallipoli facility Euronews.com. The source does not describe upstream screening, primary settling or biological treatment, and it does not report the wastewater flow or contaminant loads needed to size a complete reuse train.
How much does the ECO FLOW pilot cost?
ECO FLOW has a budget of more than €1.5 million, with 75% financed by European cohesion policy and 25% by funds from Greece and Italy Euronews.com. The report does not provide equipment prices, installation costs or a procurement schedule, so those figures cannot be used to estimate the cost of a comparable reuse installation.
How long will the pilot run, and what will be monitored?
The two-year pilot is monitoring water, plant development, soil characteristics and the accumulation of substances in the soil where the experimental olive varieties grow Euronews.com. The source does not report sampling intervals, analytical endpoints, acceptance thresholds or the criteria that would determine whether the treatment approach is commercially deployable.
What information is needed to select a supplier?
A supplier discussion would need the treatment objective, wastewater flow in cubic metres per day, BOD and COD in milligrams per litre, relevant contaminants, irrigation-water requirements and site constraints Euronews.com. The pilot used a hydrogen-peroxide and UV combination in thermally insulated equipment with circulation, making control performance and temperature management relevant areas for evaluation Euronews.com.
