Effects of Wastewater use on Soil Physico-chemical Properties and Human Health Status

Abstract

Freshwater scarcity with an increasing population is a debatable scenario at the present time. Change in rainfall pattern results in agriculture production demanding more water. To be concerned with both problems, irrigation wastewater use is a compatible strategy to overcome both conditions. Wastewater composition depends upon source type (domestic or industrial) and location (area or site) where does the water evolved. Wastewater composition varied from site to site and area to area due to location differentiation. Wastewater helps the farmers to increment in total available plant macronutrients, micronutrients, and replication of microbial community in soil. But wastewater use has some cons that they cause the soil physicochemical properties affection such as soil conductivity, water retention capacity, bulk density, organic carbon ratio and pH. Now, the critical concern is an accumulation of heavy metals in the soil-plant system. In addition, wastewater contains an excessive amount of many heavy metals (zinc, nical, lead and chromium), and if they present in the soil in excessive amounts, then they cause hazards to plants, animals and human life. In this articles discussion are made about the wastewater uses in future prospects for agriculture and how they are important in sustainable agriculture. Wastewater uses have pros and cons, but groundwater levels are decreasing at an alarming rate.