Quantification and risk assessment of heavy metal build-up in soil–plant system after irrigation with untreated city wastewater in Vehari, Pakistan

In peri-urban areas of district Vehari, farmers are using untreated city wastewater for crop irrigation owing to the scarcity of good-quality irrigation water. This practice may pose severe environmental and health issues to local inhabitants attributed to the high levels of potentially toxic metals...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental geochemistry and health 2020-12, Vol.42 (12), p.4281-4297
Main Authors: Sarwar, Tania, Shahid, Muhammad, Natasha, Khalid, Sana, Shah, Ali Haidar, Ahmad, Naveed, Naeem, Muhammad Asif, ul Haq, Zia, Murtaza, Behzad, Bakhat, Hafiz Faiq
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accumulation
Agricultural Irrigation - methods
Agricultural land
Agricultural pollution
Agricultural wastes
Agriculture - methods
Cadmium
Chemical substances
Chromium
Contamination
Copper
Crops
Crops, Agricultural - chemistry
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental Health
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Geochemistry
Health risk assessment
Health risks
Heavy metals
Humans
Iron
Irrigation
Irrigation systems
Irrigation water
Lead
Manganese
Metal industry wastewaters
Metals, Heavy - analysis
Nickel
Organic chemistry
Original Paper
Pakistan
Pretreatment
Pretreatment of water
Public Health
Risk Assessment
Sediment pollution
Soil
Soil contamination
Soil Pollutants - analysis
Soil pollution
Soil Science & Conservation
Soils
Terrestrial Pollution
Urban areas
Vegetables
Waste Water - chemistry
Wastewater
Wastewater irrigation
Wastewater pollution
Water quality
Water scarcity
Zinc
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In peri-urban areas of district Vehari, farmers are using untreated city wastewater for crop irrigation owing to the scarcity of good-quality irrigation water. This practice may pose severe environmental and health issues to local inhabitants attributed to the high levels of potentially toxic metals in wastewater. The present study evaluated the potential impacts of wastewater irrigation on metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Mn, Pb and Zn) build-up in the soil–plant continuum and associated health risks. In this study, wastewater ( n  = 17), soil ( n  = 108) and plant ( n  = 65) samples were collected from 15 peri-urban sites of three tehsils of district Vehari. Results showed that the mean concentration (mg/L) of Cd (0.02), Mn (0.25) and Fe (1.57) in wastewater samples was higher than their respective threshold values. Similarly, Cd, Mn and Fe concentration in soil was beyond the permissible limits of agricultural soil receiving wastewater irrigation. However, plants showed high accumulation of Pb, Cr and Fe than their respective limits depending on the vegetable/crop species. The health risk parameters showed that Pb and Cd are the major toxic chemical substances to human health, and the daily intake of crop plants can pose a potential health threat due to wastewater-irrigated crop consumption. Results highlighted the necessity of wastewater pretreatment to avoid the soil and vegetable contamination by wastewater irrigation and to reduce the associated health risks.
ISSN:0269-4042
1573-2983
DOI:10.1007/s10653-019-00358-8