Sewage Water Irrigation and Heavy Metals: Distribution and Accumulation in Soil, Ground Water and Agricultural Produce

Surface and Ground Water pollution has been growing increasingly in several parts of India and other countries, particularly in areas of intensive industrialization. Many industries discharge their untreated or partially treated waste in the immediate neighbourhood or in some nearby low-lying areas most oftenly in channels which join various surface water bodies such as large ponds, streams, rivers etc. The pollutant of these waste materials seep down to the ground water systems along with the entire course of fluid flow and pollute ground water. Crops grown with polluted water absorb considerable amount of toxic metals and inturn whole food chain gets polluted. Peri-urban consumers of the contaminated agricultural produce suffer on account of health. The present project was undertaken to quantify the level of heavy metals accumulation in leafy vegetables and fodder grass. The experiences, results and methodology of the study presented in this book will be highly useful to the future researchers, students, environmentalists, NGOs, farmers and peri-urban consumers of agricultural produce not only in India but also in other countries of the world having identical situation.