Heavy metal content in sewage water of different cities alongside of Mumbai local railway track use for crop production

Abstract

Water is one of the most valuable resource available to man for his domestic and agricultural uses, out of which agriculture claims lion’s share accounting for about two-third of water demand. Among others, one of the important irrigation source is municipal sewage water. The use of sewage and other industrial effluents for irrigating agricultural lands is on the rise particularly in peri-urban areas of developing countries. Amounts of wastewater are sharply increasing and the kinds of pollutants are also varied as the world wide industry is being developed incessantly. Hence, a research study was undertaken to assess the content of micro nutrients and heavy metals in sewage water alongside Mumbai local railway track of Maharashtra state (India). The sewage samples were collected in two seasons first in late kharif in year 2016 and second in rabi 2017 season. The laboratory work was undertaken in Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Dr. PDKV, Akola, during the course of investigation revealed that, sewage water used for irrigation to vegetable crops alongside Mumbai local railway track had Cu (0.04 mgL-1), Zn (0.22 mgL-1), Pb (0.09 mgL-1), Ni (0.11 mgL-1), Cd (0.008 mgL-1) and Co (0.08 mgL-1) were within safer limits, whereas Fe (11.85 mgL-1), Mn (0.39 mgL-1), Cr (0.16 mgL-1) and As (0.46 mgL-1) were beyond the permissible limits. Hence in general sewage water is not suitable for irrigation purpose.