The paper focus on the aspect of adopting society’s water reuse and acceptance. It is shown that public perception, engagement and acceptance can be provided by certain activities that cannot be provided by just proven technology efficiency.

Water reuse is still underdeveloped in France. Regulatory constraints and insufficient awareness of water scarcity are often put forward to justify this delay. This communication addresses a third difficulty, people’s reluctance to consume products irrigated with treated wastewater. This aspect is salient in a country with a history of food scandals and controversies over water.

We report on counter-intuitive findings on the effect of past water restrictions on acceptance of reclaimed water for potable use, and discuss the implications of this in light of specific measures of trust in local water authorities.

Actors can work together or share/delegate work on different tasks related to the reuse of municipal water in horti- and agriculture. Potentials and options of different operator model versions as well as their efforts and opportunity costs will be presented. The variance of local problem settings and experiences made obvious determinates for applications in diverging spatial and social scales.