Problems:
Growing water scarcity threatens economic development, sustainable human livelihoods and environment quality.
Urban population growth, particularly in developing countries, places immense pressure on water and land resources.
Wastewater is water that has been adversely affected in quality by any anthropogenic influence. It includes liquid waste discharged from domestic houses, industrial, agricultural or commercial processes.
Driven by rapid urbanisation and growing wastewater volumes, wastewater is widely used as a low-cost alternative to conventional irrigation water. It supports livelihoods and generates considerable value in urban and peri-urban agriculture despite the health and environmental risks associated with this practice.
It is estimated that up to one-tenth of the world’s population eats food produced from wastewater. As populations continue to grow and more freshwater is diverted to cities for domestic use (70 per cent of which later returns as wastewater ) the use of wastewater is certain to increase, both in terms of the areas irrigated, and in the volumes applied.
Farmers who are irrigating their land with wastewater are found to have significantly higher prevalence of hepatitis, vomiting, stomach ach, skin allergy, cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid and dysentery than those who are irrigating their land with canal or tube-well water because untreated wastewater contained high concentration of helminth eggs and faecal coli form bacteria.
The total area under wastewater irrigation is 2,139 ha (5283.2 acreage) located in different sites of Faisalbad. The results indicate that in wastewater area land preparation cost is higher compared to freshwater irrigated area because land has become more compact and hard due to untreated wastewater use since long time.
Solutions:
The government can install the treatment plant and the cost of treatment plant can be