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Impact of treated urban wastewater for reuse in agriculture on crop response and soil ecotoxicity

  • International Conference on Integrated Management of the Environment - ICIME 2014
  • Published:
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Abstract

The scarcity of freshwater resources is a serious problem in arid regions, such as Tunisia, and marginal quality water is gradually being used in agriculture. This study aims to study the impact of treated urban wastewater for reuse in agriculture on the health of soil and food crops. The key findings are that the effluents of Sfax wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) did not meet the relevant guidelines, therefore emitting a range of organic (e.g., up to 90 mg L−1 COD and 30 mg L−1 BOD5) and inorganic pollutants (e.g., up to 0.5 mg L−1 Cu and 0.1 mg L−1 Cd) in the receiving aquatic environments. Greenhouse experiments examining the effects of wastewater reuse on food plants such as tomato, lettuce, and radish showed that the treated effluent adversely affected plant growth, photosynthesis, and antioxidant enzyme contents. However, the pollution burden and biological effects on plants were substantially reduced by using a 50 % dilution of treated sewage effluent, suggesting the potential of reusing treated effluent in agriculture so long as appropriate monitoring and control is in place.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Laboratory of Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecosystems, Ecology and Planktonology, University of Sfax-Tunisia, FSS, Street Soukra Km 3.5, BP 1171, CP 3000, Sfax, Tunisia

    Dalel Belhaj & Habib Ayadi

  2. Laboratory of Water-Energy-Environment, University of Sfax-Tunisia, ENIS, Street Soukra Km 3.5, BP 1173, CP 3038, Sfax, Tunisia

    Bouthaina Jerbi & Monem Kallel

  3. Laboratory of Useful Material Valorization (LVMU), University of Sfax-Tunisia, FSS, BP 1171, CP 3000, Sfax, Tunisia

    Mounir Medhioub

  4. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia

    John Zhou

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  1. Dalel Belhaj
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  2. Bouthaina Jerbi
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  3. Mounir Medhioub
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  4. John Zhou
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  5. Monem Kallel
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  6. Habib Ayadi
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Correspondence to Dalel Belhaj.

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Belhaj, D., Jerbi, B., Medhioub, M. et al. Impact of treated urban wastewater for reuse in agriculture on crop response and soil ecotoxicity. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 15877–15887 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5672-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5672-3

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