Treated wastewater as a water source can be used for supplemental irrigation. Apply supplemental irrigation with treated wastewater it can improving rainfed farming and does not make renewed pressure on surface and groundwater resources.
There should be many papers on this filed. I am not an expert in this area. However, I do know that sometimes this method would cause some issues. For instance, the treated wastewater might have heavy metal ions, which could be transported and accumulated in the plants and finally have impacts humam health (if the plants, of parts of them such as the seeds and the roots will be consumed by people). Of cause, if the plants there are not used as a food source, it would be another story.
Agricultural reuse of treated municipal wastewater is common, especially in the developing world. The main issue is whether the water comes into direct contact (e.g., leafy greens like lettuce) or indirect contact (e.g., root zone irrigation of fruit bearing trees such as date palm, apples, etc.). For direct contact issues, please see our recent paper available via ResearchGate: Amha, Y., R. Kumaraswamy, and F. Ahmad*. “A probabilistic QMRA of Salmonella in direct agricultural reuse of treated wastewater”, Water Science & Technology, Vol. 8, pp. 1203-1211, 2015 (DOI: 10.2166/wst.2015.093).
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Does_anyone_know_about_optimally_reclaimed_wastewater_and_WWTP_sludge_in_agriculture_in_view_of_a_green_and_circular_economy?_tpcectx=profile_highlights
Hi Mahdi,
I worked quite extensively in treated wastewater reuse in agriculture.
The chemical and biological quality of regenerated wastewater for use in irrigation it will depend on the tertiary treatment. Generally regenerated wastewater contains dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus with are valuable fertilizers, that minimizing inputs of these fertilizers into the crops.
It is no recommendable use this type of water horticulture crops such us lettuce, spinach and so on. But it is perfectly fine to use in crops that need to process before to human consumption or even better in biomass crops. I know a several number of projects using this types of water in golf lawns.
some of the projects I have involved, they recovered the drainage water to avoid contamination of other surface or groundwaters
However, I have involved in other projects using regenerated wastewater to recharge groundwater aquifers. But in these cases wastewater receive special treatments and it has to pass a chemical and biological standards
Hi,
There are many literatures that use reclaimed water independently or in combination with other water resources (i.e. groundwater or surface water) to evaluate the crop yields, environmental risks, soil properties, etc.
For example, comparing the irrigation of some crops such as Sorgum, Sunflower, or Corn are typical subjects. These may also cover the analyzes of heavy metal/macro nutrients adsorbed or stabilized in soil.
Furthermore, I did some recent research on economical allocation of treated wastewater in a watershed.
Rivers State of Nigeria has distinct wet and dry seasons. Farmers only practice rain-fed cropping. Between 2004 and 2005, a research was conducted during the dry season on the effect of septic tank effluent on the performance of maize. The effluent had definitely undergone natural biological purification. The result was amazing. The high performance of the crop might, in part, have been due to the dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus, which are valuable plant nutrients. However, the crop was not recommended for consumption since tests were yet to be performed on the grain quality.
Rivers State of Nigeria has distinct wet and dry seasons. Farmers only practice rain-fed cropping. Between 2004 and 2005, a research was conducted during the dry season on the effect of septic tank effluent on the performance of maize. The effluent had definitely undergone natural biological purification. The result was amazing. The high performance of the crop might, in part, have been due to the dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus, which are valuable plant nutrients. However, the crop was not recommended for consumption since tests were yet to be performed on the grain quality.
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