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The article focuses on the development of a risk management plan for small-scale water reuse system in Weißenberge, Germany. The reuse system comprises of wastewater treatment ponds, cloth filter, activated carbon biofilter, sandfilter, UV disinfection and a hydroponic tomato cultivation. Multi-stakeholder consultations, pre-validation and preliminary monitoring led to a low-risk perception during the risk assessment. Technical and non-technical barriers before and after the point of compliance resulted in a high level of safety confirmed during the operation. Remaining challenges in implementing EU regulation 2020/741, such as the accounting of additional barriers and validation monitoring are discussed. Experiences made during the operation of the water reuse system as well as a review of scientific publications indicate that hydroponic cultivation does not have any increased risk compared against other cultivation methods.

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  • Regulation 2020/741 was applied to hydroponic water reuse.

  • Preliminary monitoring of wastewater treatment ponds and stakeholder consultations supported the risk assessment.

  • Operation confirmed the low levels of health and environmental risks.

  • Accounting of barriers and validation monitoring remain among the challenges of the regulation.

  • Current research does not indicate a need to exclude hydroponics from water reuse.

agricultural water reuse, HypoWave, reclaimed water, risk assessment
© 2025 The Authors
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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