Sewage Water: From Waste to Resource – A Review

Abstract

The use of sewage water has curtailed the utilization of water from freshwater sources for irrigation purposes. The treated sewage, which were usually dumped into the freshwater bodies, has now been diverted toward farms for irrigation. Sewage water contains many nutrients and cuts the fertigation demand which makes it a favorable choice over conventional water sources, especially in water scarce and periurban areas. This practice proved to be a boon in some areas as it presented promising results with increase in soil fertility and production. Due to the presence of toxicity of certain contaminants in sewage such as heavy metals, researchers have found sewage water to be detrimental to agriculture and environment. The article focuses on the composition of sewage water and suitability of water used for irrigation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nitasha Khatri

Nitasha Khatri is a graduate in Life Sciences. She has done her post-graduation and MPhil in Biotechnology. She has done her PhD degree in Environment Sciences. She has a work experience of over 13 years in the field of environment. She has been serving in Gujarat Environment Management Institute (GEMI) as Senior Scientific Officer. She has been actively contributing to the studies in the field of pollution, rural environment studies, river monitoring, biomonitoring of rivers, studies on macroinvertebartes, laboratory management including e-laboratory management system. She is an author of around 13 scientific papers in environmental research.

Sanjiv Tyagi

Sanjiv Tyagi is a Graduate in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi. He received his PhD in Air Pollution (Environment) from CEPT University. He also holds Postgraduate in Pollution Control and Bachelor in Law. He is a member of the Indian Forest Services of 1988 batch. He has been admitted as a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, London. He has served in various capacities in Gujarat Forest Department and has also served in environment as Member Secretary of Gujarat Pollution Control Board and as the Director of Gujarat Environment Management Institute (GEMI).

Maithri Tharmavaram

Maithri Tharmavaram has worked as professional at Gujarat Environment Management Institute. She has done her bachelors (B. Tech) in Bioinformatics and postgraduation in Nanobiotechnology. Her areas of interest involve the development of surface modification strategies for clay-based nanotubes and use them for various biological and environmental applications such as pesticides and other pollutant remediation She has published several research papers in various international journals .

Deepak Rawtani

Deepak Rawtani, PhD, C. Eng is an Associate Professor (Nanotechnology) at Institute of research and development, Gujarat Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar. His research focus on Forensic nanobiotechnology special emphasis to DNA -Nanoparticle interaction, Functionalization of Halloysite nanotubes for Enzyme Immobilization & drug delivery and environmental nanotechnology. Dr. Rawtani is the author of more than 50 scientific papers in their research domain with a journal of international repute.