Abstract
This study contributed to the existing knowledge on urban treated wastewater reused for agriculture in MENA region by identifying means to optimize wastewater reuse by taking into consideration various parameters such as return to farmers, groundwater quality and impacts on soil and groundwater. The aim of the study was to maximize the usage of treated wastewater reuse in conjunction with groundwater or any available water resource by taking into consideration their quality and quantity, in addition to the environmental, economic and agronomic components. The study was conducted at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman with three types of crops (eggplant, radish and okra). All grown crops were irrigated either by A: 50% groundwater and 50% treated wastewater or B: 100% groundwater or C: 75% treated wastewater and 25% groundwater or D: 100% treated wastewater. Physical and chemical properties of the soil were almost similar and did not show significant differences with both waters. Moreover, some chemical properties such as total carbon and some major elements (N, P, K) were significantly increased (p < 0.05) when treated wastewater was applied. A significant increases in plant productivity was noticed when plants were irrigated with treated wastewater. Whereas, there were insignificant changes in heavy metals of tested crops between different treatments.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abd-Elfattah A, Shehata SM, Talab AS (2002) Evaluation of irrigation with either raw municipal treated waste or river water on elements up take and yield of lettuce and potato plants. Egypt J Soil Sci 42(4):705–714
Abohassan AA, Kherallah IE, Kandeel SA (1988) Effect of sewage effluent irrigation regimes on wood quality of Presopi juliflera grown in Riyadh Region. Arab Gulf J Sci Res 136(l):45–53
Al-Ajmy I (2002) Wastewater in the Sultanate and its effects on environment. In: International conference on wastewater management and its effect on the environment in hot and arid countries, Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources, Sultanate of Oman
Bansal RL, Nayyar VK, Takkar PN (1992) Accumulation and bioavailability of Zn, Cu, Mn and Fe in soils polluted with industrial waste water. J Indian Soc Soil Sci 39:795–799
Bedbabis S, Giuseppe F, Bechir BR, Makki B (2010) Effects of irrigation with treated wastewater on olive tree growth, yield and leaf mineral elements at short time. Hortic Sci 126:345–350
Brar MS, Mahli SS, Singh AP, Arora CL, Gill KS (2000) Sewer water irrigation effects on some potentially toxic trace elements in soil and potato plants in northwestern India. Can J Soil Sci 80:465–471
CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) (2002) Parivesh, Newsletter from CPCB. Available at http://www.cpcb.delhi.nic.in/legislation/ch15dec02a.htms
El Mardi MO, Salama SB, Consolacion EC, Al-Shabibi MS (1995) Effect of treated sewage water on vegetative and reproductive growth of date palm. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 26(11&12):1895–1904
Gee GW, Bauder JW (1986) Particle-size analysis. In: Klute A (ed) Methods of Soil analysis, physical and mineralogical methods, Part 1, 2nd edn. Agronomy series No. 9. American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America Inc. Publ. Madison, Wisconsin USA, pp 383–404
Hamad I, Nizam AA, Suleiman MS (1995) Biological detection of contamination in vegetables irrigated with brackish and underground water. In: Proceedings of the Arab regional workshop on the use of saline, brackish, and treated sewage effluent water in irrigated agriculture, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, pp 481–531
Izzo K, Scagnozzi A, Belligno A, Navari-Izzo F (1993) Influence of NaCl treatment or Ca, K, Na interrelations in maize shoots. In: Fragesoand MAC, Beusichem ML (eds) Optimization of plant nutrition. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 577–582
Levine A, Sanot A (2004) Recovering sustainable water from waste water. Environ sci Technol 201A
Mahdi OE, Salama SB, Consolacion EC, Al-Solomi M (1998) Effect of treated sewage water on the concentration of certain nutrient elements in date palm leaves and fruits. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 29:5–6
Mohammed MJ, Mazahareh N (2003) Changes in soil fertility parameters in response to irrigation of forage crops with secondary treated waste water. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 34:1281–1294
Mujeriego R, Salal (1991) Golf course irrigation with reclaimed waste water. Sci Technol 24(9):161–172
Omran MS, Waly TM, Abo-Eleinain EM, Elnashar BMB (1988) Effect of sewage irrigation on yield, tree components, and heavy metals accumulation in navel orange trees. Biol Wastes BIWAED 23:17–24
Palaniswami C, Sree Ramulu US (1994) Effects of continuous irrigation with paper factory effluent on soil properties. J Indian Soc Soil Sci 42:139–140
Pescod M (1992) Wastewater treatment and use in agriculture. Bull. FAO #47 (125) (Rome)
Rattan RK, Datta SP, Chandra S, Sahran N (2002) Heavy metals and environmental quality: Indian scenario. Fertile. News 47(11):21–40
Rattan RK, Datta SP, Chhankar PK, Suribabu K, Singh AK (2004) Long term impact of irrigation with sewage effluents on heavy metal contents in soils, crops and groundwater—a case study. Agric Ecosyst Environ 109:310–322
Selem MM, Amir S, Abdel-Aziz SM, Kandil MF, Mansour SF (2000) Effect of irrigation with treated waste water on some chemical characteristics of soils and plants. Egypt J Soil Sci 40(1/2):49–59
SPSS Inc. (1998) SPSS Base 8.0 for windows user’s guide. SPSS Inc., Chicago
Stewart HTL, Hopmans P, Flinn DW (1990) Nutrient accumulation in trees and soil following irrigation with municipal effluent. Aust Environ Pollut 63(2):155–177
U.S Environmental Protection Agency (2004) Guidelines for Waste Water Reuse, Municipal support office of wastewater management. Washington, DC, EPA/625/R-04/108
World Bank (2012) Renewable energy desalination: an emerging solution to close the water gap in the Middle East and North Africa. World Bank, Washington, DC
Xu J, Laosheng W, Andrew CC, Yuan Z (2010) Impact of long-term reclaimed wastewater irrigation on agricultural soils: a preliminary assessment. J Hazard Mater 183:780–786
Yadar RK, Goyal R, Sharma RK, Dubey SK, Minchas RS (2002) Post irrigation impact of domestic sewage effluent on composition of soils, crops and ground water—a case study. J Environ Int 28(6):481–486
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank staff from Sultan Qaboos University and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for their support in collecting and analyzing soil, water and plant samples. Special thanks to USAID (FABRI) for their financial support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Al-Busaidi, A., Ahmed, M. (2017). Maximum Use of Treated Wastewater in Agriculture. In: Abdalla, O., Kacimov, A., Chen, M., Al-Maktoumi, A., Al-Hosni, T., Clark, I. (eds) Water Resources in Arid Areas: The Way Forward. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51856-5_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51856-5_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51855-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51856-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)