Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference 2021

December 16-18, 2021, NIT Tiruchirappalli

Trichy Chapter

Impact of Aquaculture Solid Waste on Environment in

the Delta Region of Andhra Pradesh: A Case Study
T V Nagaraju1*, B M Sunil1 and Babloo Chaudhary1
1Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India- 575025
*varshith.varma@gmail.com

Abstract. Aquaculture solid waste (ASW) from the aquaculture ponds is

emerging waste which impacts on the environment due to intensive culture
practices. In aquaculture processing, 45-65% of dry weight of waste generating
which includes shell, shrimp head, fins and bones. This study presents the
leachate characteristics and groundwater characteristics of the nearby dump
sites. Field surveys was carried to know the source and disposal of ASW, and to
identify the lacunae of practice. Based on the leachate characteristics, it has
been suggested that proper management of ASW is needed. This study also ex-
plores the Indian ASW and its impact on environment.

Keywords: Aquaculture solid waste, Leachate, Ammonia, Environment.

1 Introduction

From plastic waste to e-waste, from household garbage to municipal solid waste, from
industrial waste to medical waste, environmental concern has found an important
aspect in the future sustainable development world over. Waste is threat for the eco-
system in recent and past [1, 2]. Due to lack of awareness, proper management, and
advanced equipment, many large-scale landfills or dump yards came into existence.
The Indian waste management has been no exception in large-scale dump yards. For
example, dump yard in Hyderabad, India, having radius of 10 kilometers (over 4700
metric tons of garbage waste was dumping every day) [3]. Municipal solid waste
(MSW) landfill, which comprise a variety of wastes such as garbage, plastic, wood,
glass bottles and other wastes which are threat to environment if dumped in the open
places. Last few years many revolutionary changes in research and practice have been
takes place in MSW landfills. Apart from MSW, hazardous wastes such as chemical
waste, medical waste and e-waste were most concern in many parts of the world [4].
Nowadays, due to rapid increase in global population with an average annual rate
of 1.6% from 1960 to 2018, needs were increased. To fulfill food demand aquaculture
production is playing vital role and intensively expanding in all parts of the world
with an increased rate of average annual production of 3% for the same period [5]. In
developing countries, particularly in India, expanding aquaculture creates employ-
ment for local community and export earnings for country. In India, Andhra Pradesh

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is the state which produces the highest production of 34.5 lakh metric tons annually.
Aquaculture has been traditionally practices in both fresh water and brackish water
from time immemorial [6]. Around 10% demand is increased in production per year
and for 2020, the target was setup to 15 million tons by supporting blue revolution.
However, globally, due to intensive aquaculture farming groundwater bodies and
nearby canals were polluting because of intensive farming includes high density of
seed, high loading feed, usage of high concentration disinfectants, chemical, minerals,
and probiotics allows negative impact on environment [6]. Further, aquaculture con-
taminated water having high concentration of ammonia and nitrates have become a
major concern on ecosystem and human health [7].
Mainly aquaculture ponds or marine aquaculture generates waste in the form of
aquaculture sludge (settled feeds and fish or shrimp feces) and fish or shrimp pro-
cessing waste. Due to intensive farming, aquaculture sludge and processing waste
significantly increased, particularly in underdeveloped and developing nations. Aqua-
culture sludge which is suspended solids and settled solids depends on the feed coef-
ficient and continuous monitoring. It is estimated that about 10% of the total feed was
wasted because of uneaten. Moreover, many parts of the world, still traditional de-
pend on traditional practice where aquaculture sludge was not collected at the end of
the crop. Instead, aquaculture sludge was discharged into nearby canals periodically.
Among the aquaculture contaminant constituents, ammonia and nitrates are major
concern because it’s higher concentration [7]. Several studies have reported that
treatment or control of ammonia in landfill leachate using air stripping and adsorp-
tion. Nonetheless, only a few researchers reported the application of air stripping in
aquaculture effluent treatment [8].
In addition, recirculating systems (RAS) are in vogue in developed nations to treat
the aquaculture effluents and only in small scale [9]. RAS consists of filters work by
mechanically and bio-absorbers to treat aquaculture effluent water and reuse the filter
water for next crop. Moreover, RAS needs expensive setup, so, undeveloped nations
still not looking for RAS systems in their practice even though intensive farming [9,
10]. Moreover, geotextile bags containing flocculant-aid for suspended or settled
solids are an emerging alternative to traditional treatment process. Geotextile bags
could be helpful for reducing total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand
(COD), and total nitrates [11].
In this study, investigation was carried out on aquaculture leachate and nearby
groundwater bodies. Field surveys was carried to know the source and disposal of
ASW, and to identify the lacunae of practice. This study also explores the intensity of
aquaculture practices in the delta region of Andhra Pradesh and its impact on envi-
ronment.

2 Aquaculture Solid Waste Management at Global Scenario

Currently, the top five countries which are generating inland aquaculture produc-
tion are China, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Moreover, Asia aquacul-

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ture production consistently accounted for 75% of global inland aquaculture produc-
tion since 2000 [12]. Recent years, China inland aquaculture production decreased
from 2.18 million tonnes to 1.96 million tonnes from 2017 to 2018. Cambodia and
Myanmar showing same production trend in both 2017 and 2018. India and Bangla-
desh production was rapidly increasing every year since 2000 [12]. However, due to
intensive farming many negative consequences may occur [13].
In aquaculture ponds, shrimps and fishes which are unable to consume the substan-
tial content of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are main ingredients (nutrients) pres-
ence in the feed, may acts as a key source of water pollution. Hence, in many coun-
tries it was considered as industrial waste.
Globally, government authorities have regulated the management of aquaculture
waste. Particularly, developed nations that have stringent rules on aquaculture prac-
tices and waste management include China (fisheries law of the people’s republic of
China, 1986); the USA (procedures for the safety and sanitary processing and import-
ing of fish and fish products, 1995); Canada (aquaculture regulation, 2002); and Aus-
tralia (fisheries management regulation, 1995). In developing countries, most of the
ponds the aquaculture effluents were directly released to nearby canals, which lead to
environmental pollution. In most of the countries, no treatment of effluent takes place
at the source. As a result, effluents (nitrogen and phosphorus) may form ammonia and
total nitrates, over the time due to biological activity their concentrations will be in-
creased and behave as toxic compounds [14].
Fish or shrimp production waste which includes shrimp shell, scale, fish fins, fish
tail and bones is about 70% before sold or imported. Based on the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 2020) reports nearly 13 million tonnes of
processing waste generated globally which is equal to the annual municipal solid
waste of Australia in the year 2020. Surprisingly, China has reduced the intensity of
farming and production in recent years and in few provinces inland aquaculture was
banned due to environmental concern [15].

3 Aquaculture Practice in the Delta Region of Andhra Pradesh

Delta region of Andhra Pradesh, India indicates that the aquaculture farming is
now the heartland of India’s inland aquaculture production. In particular, Undi con-
stituency in Andhra Pradesh, land cover is dedicated to intensive aquaculture ponds
with an area ranges from 5 acres to 100 acres. Early 2000’s traditional aquaculture
practices include species of tiger shrimp with lower density of shrimps did not affect
the environment [6].
From 2010’s, after the state bifurcation newly formed state Andhra Pradesh, the gov-
ernment relaxed their management and expansion of aquaculture, and species van-
namei shrimp culture boosts the state economy with the highest aquaculture produc-
tion. Lake based aquaculture and inland aquaculture ponds considered as promising
economic growth for the state development. So, the delta region of Andhra Pradesh as
ranks largest producer of shrimp in India [6, 16].

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T V Nagaraju, B M Sunil and Babloo Chaudhary

3.1 Aquaculture sludge leachate characteristics

Aquaculture pond sludge samples were collected from 35 locations in the delta re-
gion of Andhra Pradesh during the pre-monsoon and post monsoon between 2019 and
2021; no rains are occurred during the sample collection. The sample locations were
represented the different zones based on the intensity of the farming and proximity of
potential contaminated zones. The physico-chemical characteristics of the aquaculture
sludge leachate samples were illustrated in the Table 1.

Table 1. Physico-chemical characteristics of aquaculture leachate

Average values of tested samples
Property
Pre-monsoon Post monsoon
pH 8.4 7.8
Dissolved oxygen, DO (ppm) 3.0 5.0
Electrical conductivity, EC (µs/cm) 7084 4522
Total dissolved solids, TDS (ppm) 2655 1280
Chemical oxygen demand, COD (ppm) 64 28
Biological oxygen demand, BOD (5days) (ppm) 14.8 6.4
Ammonium, NH4 (ppm) 3.56 1.24
Nitrate, NO3 (ppm) 8.2 3.15
Nitrite, NO2 (ppm) 1.48 0.23
Sulfate, SO4 (ppm) 842 324
Sodium, Na (ppm) 215 160
Magnesium, Mg (kg/acre) 94 74
Sulfur, S (kg/acre) 168 160
Potassium, K (kg/acre) 688 515
Phosphate, P (kg/acre) 490 385

The physico-chemical characteristics of the samples before and after monsoon shows
noticeably decreased after the post-monsoon. This can be due to the dilution of the
sludge with the rainwater. The values of ammonia and nitrates exhibits higher concen-
tration during the pre-monsoon, leads to eutrophication process.

3.2 Effect of aquaculture waste sludge on clay mineralogy

In table 2, clays mineral behaviour before and after exposed with aquaculture
leachate for 20-days was observed. The test results were revealed that the cation ex-
change takes place between the clays and leachate. The main ions were NH4+, Na+,
and K+ are significantly increased with leachate exposure. Moreover, NH4+ was
observed highest amount due to the favorable monovalent cation to effect clays and
further influence the structure and volume change behaviour of clays. Therefore, the
surface forces of the clay particles reduced with the aquaculture leachate exposure

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and cause an improvement in the hydraulic conductivity by ion exchange and de-
crease in the double diffusion layer in expansive clays.

Table 2. Effect of expansive clay before and after aquaculture sludge leachate ex-
posure
Calcium Sodium Ammonia Potassium Magnesium
Properties pH
(mEq/100g) (mEq/100g) (mEq/100g) (mEq/100g) (mEq/100g)
Aquaculture 1.32
leachate
7.6 40.21 0.21 0.14 3.12
before ex-
posed values
Aquaculture 2.34
leachate
8.2 43.28 34.23 42.82 26.24
after ex-
posed values

4 Conclusions

In this study, the effect of aquaculture contaminants on the expansive clays and over-
view of the emerging aquaculture contaminants were presented. The following con-
clusions were drawn from this case study.
Nowadays intensity of aquaculture practices has evolved rapidly in the delta region
of Andhra Pradesh, India, may contribute negative geo-environmental consequences
due to the un-engineered culture.
Sampling events were conducted in pre-monsoon and post-monsoon to identify the
potential problems with the aquaculture contaminants. Physico-chemical characteris-
tics of the aquaculture leachate clear that contamination occurred in the aquaculture
ponds and the surrounding water bodies. Ammonia and nitrates are the key com-
pounds with higher concentration found in the aquaculture systems.
Expansive clays exposed with aquaculture leachate shows that cation exchange be-
tween clays and leachate. Major cation exchange takes place found in the NH4+, Na+,
and K+. Moreover, the ammonia concentration in the aquaculture leachate may cause
replacement of monovalent ions, which leads to reduction in the thickness of double
diffusion layers and surface forces.

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