Semester Project

SUBJECT: Maintenance Engineering

TOPIC: Waste Water Treatment

SUBMITTED TO: Ms. Rabia Sabir

SUBMITTED BY: Usman Ali

ROLL NO: UW-20-BSC-CHE-020

SEMESTER: 7th

Department of Chemical Engineering

Wah Engineering Collage
University of Wah
Table of Contents
Abstract: ..................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction: ............................................................................................................................... 4

DOMESTIC WASTEWATER: ............................................................................................... 4

CHARACTERIZATION OF DOMESTIC WASTEWATER:................................................ 5

Chemical oxygen demand (COD): ..................................................................................... 5

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD): ................................................................................ 5

WASTE WATER TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES: ........................................................... 6

SUSPENDED GROWTH PROCESSES: .......................................................................... 6

ATTACHED GROWTH PROCESSES : ............................................................................ 6

Wastewater strength: .............................................................................................................. 7

Water availability and use:.................................................................................................. 7

Wastewater production and treatment: ................................................................................... 8

Wastewater Treatment: ........................................................................................................... 9

ANAEROBIC METHODS: ................................................................................................. 10

UPFLOW ANAEROBIC SLUDGE TREATMENT PROCESS ( UASB) ....................... 10

ANAEROBIC DIGESTION: ........................................................................................... 10

Applications: ........................................................................................................................ 11

Stages: .................................................................................................................................. 13

Digestive: .......................................................................................................................... 14

Wastewater use/disposal: ...................................................................................................... 14

Policies and institutional set-up for wastewater management: ............................................ 15

Policy aspects and national strategy ................................................................................. 15

Research/practice on different aspects of wastewater: ......................................................... 17

Status and need for the knowledge and skills on the safe use of wastewater: ..................... 18

Conclusions:............................................................................................................................. 19

References: ............................................................................................................................... 20
Abstract:
Pakistan, once a water-surplus country, is now a water deficit country. The water availability
has decreased from 1,299 m³ per capita in 1996-97 to 1,100 m³ per capita in 2006 and it is
projected to less than 700 m³ per capita by 2025. Therefore, search for other non-conventional
water resources for irrigation i.e. wastewater, has become important. In Pakistan, domestic and
industrial wastewater is either discharged directly to a sewer system, a natural drain or water
body, a nearby field or an internal septic tank. Mostly, this wastewater is not treated and none
of the cities have any biological treatment process except Islamabad and Karachi, and even
these cities treat only a small proportion (<8%) of their wastewater before disposal. The
wastewater used for irrigation is valued by farmers, mainly because of its nutrient contents and
reliability of supply and exert positive impacts on agriculture land values, households, monthly
income and employment due to reuse of wastewater despite of the ill effects of wastewater
irrigation on soil physical and chemical properties in addition to contamination of human food
chain and related health risks. Limited information is available in this regard. There seems no
national policy in effect on sustainable use of wastewater in this country. Problems of
wastewater disposal tend to stem from distortions due to economy-wide policies, failure of
targeted environmental policies and institutional failures. Thus laws and regulations have been
formulated about treatment and disposal of wastewater but their implementation due to lack of
resources and skilled manpower is the real issue. There is hardly any well organized study
which focused on risk assessment in a systematic way. Some of the systematic work has been
done by IWMI and Pak-EPA with financial aid from foreign donors. Therefore, a well-
coordinated program is necessary to create awareness among different sections of the society
including the general public, organizations, industrialists and farmers.
Introduction:
With the rapid growth in urbanization and industrialization, environmental contamination
has worsened due to the incessant discharge of toxic substances into water bodies, which has
become a worldwide problem [1]. Furthermore, the demand for water in domestic and
industrial activities has significantly increased, which has accordingly increased the amount of
wastewater that is released into sewage systems. Thus, the reuse and treatment of wastewater
have become important concepts in the attempt to increase water availability [2]. The
wastewater industry is in a state of transition [3] due to the recent wastewater effluent standards
and emerging contaminants such as pharmaceutical and personal care products, and dyes in
water bodies [4]. At present, several physicochemical methods (e.g., advanced oxidation
process, adsorption, and membrane technologies), biological methods (e.g., activated sludge
process, phytoremediation, bioremediation, and anammox), and hybrid methods have been
developed to treat polluted water [1]. However, a treatment method with maximum efficiency
in the removal of all kinds of contaminants is still far being realized. Moreover, the United
Nations’ sustainable developmentgoal This SI discusses state-of-the-art wastewater and water
treatment technologies that could be used to develop a sustainable treatment method in the
future. On this topic, studies have focused on measurements, modeling, and experiments under
laboratory and field conditions.

DOMESTIC WASTEWATER:

Domestic wastewater is the water that has been used by a community and which contains all
the materials added to the water during its use. It is thus composed of human body wastes
(faeces and urine) together with the water used for flushing toilets, and sullage, which is the
wastewater resulting from personal washing, laundry, food preparation and the cleaning of
kitchen utensils. Fresh wastewater is a grey turbid liquid that has an earthy but inoffensive
odour. It contains large floating and suspended solids (such as faeces, rags, plastic containers,
maize cobs), smaller suspended solids (such as partially disintegrated faeces, paper, vegetable
peel) and very small solids in colloidal (ie non-settleable) suspension, as well as pollutants in
true solution. It is objectionable in appearance and hazardous in content, mainly because of the
number of disease-causing (‘pathogenic’) organisms it contains (Chapter 2). In warm climates
wastewater can soon lose its content of dissolved oxygen and so become ‘stale’ or ‘septic’.
Septic wastewater has an offensive odour, usually of hydrogen sulphide. The organic fraction
of both is composed principally of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. These compounds,
particularly the first two, form an excellent diet for bacteria, the microscopic organisms whose
voracious appetite for food is exploited by public health engineers in the microbiological
treatment of wastewater. In addition to these chemical compounds, faeces and, to a lesser
extent, urine contain many millions of intestinal bacteria and smaller numbers of other
organisms.

CHARACTERIZATION OF DOMESTIC WASTEWATER:

Wastewaters are usually treated by supplying them with oxygen so that bacteria can utilize the
wastewater contents as food. The general equation is: wastewater + oxygen ➝ bacteria treated
wastewater + new bacteria The nature of domestic wastewater is so complex that it precludes
its complete analysis. However, since it is comparatively easy to measure the amount of oxygen
used by the bacteria as they oxidize the wastewater, the concentration of organic matter in the
wastewater can easily be expressed in terms of the amount of oxygen required for its oxidation.
Thus, if, for example, half a gram of oxygen is consumed in the oxidation of each litre of a
particular wastewater, then we say that this wastewater has an ‘oxygen demand’ of 500 mg/l,
by which we mean that the concentration of organic matter in a litre of the wastewater is such
that its oxidation requires 500 mg of oxygen. There are basically three ways of expressing the
oxygen demand of a waste: 1 Theoretical oxygen demand (ThOD) – this is the theoretical
amount of oxygen required to oxidize the organic fraction of the wastewater completely to
carbon dioxide and water.

Chemical oxygen demand (COD):

This is obtained by oxidizing the wastewater with a boiling acid dichromate solution. This
process oxidizes almost all organic compounds to carbon dioxide and water, the reaction
usually proceeding to more than 95 per cent completion. The advantage of COD measurements
is that they are obtained very quickly (within 3 hours), but they have the disadvantages that
they do not give any information on the proportion of the wastewater that can be oxidized by
bacteria, nor on the rate at which bio-oxidation occurs.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD):

This is the amount of oxygen required for the oxidation of a wastewater by bacteria. It is
therefore a measure of the concentration of organic matter in a waste that can be oxidized by
bacteria (‘bio-oxidized’ or ‘biodegraded’). BOD is usually expressed on a 5-day, 20°C basis –
that is as the amount of oxygen consumed during oxidation of the wastewater for 5 days at
20°C. The correct concept of BOD is fundamental to wastewater treatment, and a rigorous
treatment of BOD removal kinetics is given in Chapter 5. From the foregoing it is apparent
that: ThOD > COD > BODu > BOD5 There is no general relationship between these various
oxygen demands. However, for untreated domestic wastewater a large number of
measurements have indicated the following approximate ratios: BOD5/COD = 0.5
BODu/BOD5 = 1.5 The presence of industrial or agricultural wastewaters alters these ratios
considerably

WASTE WATER TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES:

The principal biological processes used for wastewater treatment are divided into two main
categories:
1) Suspended growth processes
2) Attached growth (or biofilm) processes.
SUSPENDED GROWTH PROCESSES:
In suspended growth processes the microorganisms responsible for treatment are maintained
in liquid suspension by appropriate mixing methods. Many suspended growth processes used
in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment are operated with a positive dissolved
oxygen concentration (aerobic), but applications exist where suspended growth anaerobic
processes are used, such as for high organic concentration industrial wastewater and organic
sludges. The most common suspended growth process used for municipal wastewater
treatment is the Activated Sludge Process.
ATTACHED GROWTH PROCESSES :
In attached growth processes, the microorganisms responsible for the conversion of organic
material or nutrients are attached on inert packing material. The organic material and nutrients
are removed from the water flowing past the attached growth also known as the biofilm.
Packing material in attached growth processes include rock, gravel, sand, slag, redwood and
range of plastics and other synthetic materials.
Attached growth processes are operated as aerobic or anaerobic processes. The packing can
be submerged completely in liquid or not submerged, with air or gas space above the biofilm
liquid layer. The most common aerobic attached growth process used is the Trickling filter.
Wastewater strength:

The higher the concentration of organic matter in a wastewater, the ‘stronger’ it is said to be.
Wastewater strength is often judged by its BOD5 or COD (Table 1.2). The strength of the
wastewater from a community is governed to a very large degree by its water consumption.
Thus, in the US where water consumption is high (350–400 l/person day) the wastewater is
weak (BOD5 = 200–250 mg/l), whereas in tropical countries the wastewater is strong (BOD5
= 300–700 mg/l) as the water consumption is typically much lower (40–100 l/person day). The
other factor determining the strength of domestic wastewater is the BOD (= amount of organic
waste) produced per person per day. This varies from country to country and the differences
are largely due to differences in the quantity and quality of sullage rather than of body wastes,
although variations in diet are important.

Water availability and use:

Pakistan has become a water deficit country due to depleting ground and surface water
resources, loss in surface shortage, prevailing droughts and shift of fresh water from agriculture
to more pressing domestic as well as industrial uses (Ensink et al., 2004). Therefore, search for
other non-conventional water resources for irrigation i.e. wastewater has become important.
The recent statistical data shows that the Indus System and its tributaries provide an average
142 MAF of water annually. Out of which nearly 96 MAF is utilized for irrigation, 36 MAF
flows to sea and about 10 MAF is consumed by the system losses which include seepage,
evaporation and spill during floods. Presently, 40.5 MAF groundwater is being pumped
annually and about 36% of the groundwater is classified as highly saline and 60-80% as saline
(Anonymous, 2011). Overall water availability has decreased from 1,299 cubic meters (m³) per
capita in 1996-97 to 1,100 m³ per capita in 2006. It is projected that water availability will be
less than 700 m³ per capita by 2025 against the international standard of 1500 m³ per capita
(Pak-SCEA 2006).

The renewable water resources are estimated at 248 billion m3/year. Surface runoff is estimated
at 243 billion m3/year, while groundwater resources are about 55 billion m3/year, most being
the base flow of the river system. Of which 96.8% is withdrawn for agricultural purposes, 1.6%
for domestic use and another 1.6% for industrial use. Pakistan would need more additional
water in future to meet irrigation and other requirements of the people. This was not possible
unless new storage dams were built.
Wastewater production and treatment:

Sr. No. Source Volume

m3/yr Percent %
1 Industry 395 6
2 Commercial 266 5
3 Urban residential 1,628 25
4 Rural residential 3,059 48
5 Agriculture 1,036 16
Total 6,414 100
Table 1: Sector wise estimated wastewater production in Pakistan

Urban Total % of % of Receiving water Body

City population wastewater Total Treated
(1998 census) produced

Lahore 5,143,495 287 12.5 0.01 River Ravi, irrigation canals,

vegetable farms
Faisalabad 2,008,861 129 5.6 25.6 River Ravi, River Chenab and
vegetable farms
Gujranwala 1,132,509 71 3.1 - SCARP drains, vegetable farms
Rawalpindi 1,409768 40 1.8 - River Soan and vegetable
farms
Sheikhupura 870,110 15 0.7 - SCARP drains
Multan 1,197,384 66 2.9 - River Chenab, irrigation canals
and farms
Sialkot 713,552 19 0.8 - River Ravi, irrigation canals
and farms
Karachi 9,339,023 604 26.3 15.9 Arabian Sea
 Hyderabad 1,166,894 51 2.2 34.0 River Indus, irrigation canals
and SCARP drains
Peshawar 982,816 52 2.3 36.2 Kabul River
Other 19,475,588 967 41.8 0.7 -
Total Urban 43,440,000 2,301 100.0 7.7 -

Table 2: Wastewater Produced Annually by Cities (WB-CWRAS Paper 3, 2005)

Wastewater Treatment:

In Pakistan, domestic waste containing household effluent and human waste is either
discharged directly to a sewer system, a natural drain or water body, a nearby field or an
internal septic tank. Normally, municipal wastewater is not subjected to any treatment
and none of the cities have any biological treatment process except Islamabad and
Karachi, and even these cities treat only a small proportion of their wastewater before
disposal. Assuming that all the installed treatment plants are working at their full
installed capacity, it is estimated that about 8% of urban wastewater is probably treated
in municipal treatment plants (Table 2). Other estimates suggest that the figure is not
greater than 1 per cent. The treated wastewater generally flows into open drains, and
there are no provisions for reuse of the treated wastewater for agriculture or other
municipal uses. Table above (2) shows ten large urban districts of the country, which
produce more than 60% of the total urban wastewater including household, industrial
and commercial wastewater (WB-CWRAS Paper 3, 2005). A negligible proportion i.e.
8% of wastewater in Pakistan is treated through sedimentation ponds to a primary level
only but most of the treatment plants are not functional therefore the figure can be
estimated around 1 per cent. There is no prevailing concept of treatment at secondary
and tertiary level in this country. Although treatment facilities exist in about a dozen
major cities, in some cases these have been built without the completion of associated
sewerage networks, and the plants are often either under-loaded or abandoned (Pak-
SCEA, 2006).
ANAEROBIC METHODS:

UPFLOW ANAEROBIC SLUDGE TREATMENT PROCESS ( UASB)

Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) technology, normally referred to as UASB reactor,
is a form of anaerobic digester that is used in the treatment of wastewater. The UASB reactor
is a methanogenic (methane-producing) digester that evolved from the anaerobic clarigester. A
similar but variant technology to UASB is the expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) digester.
UASB uses an anaerobic process whilst forming a blanket of granular sludge which suspends
in the tank. Wastewater flows upwards through the blanket and is processed (degraded) by the
anaerobic microorganisms. The upward flow combined with the settling action of gravity
suspends the blanket with the aid of flocculants. The blanket begins to reach maturity at around
3 months. Small sludge granules begin to form whose surface area is covered in aggregations
of bacteria. In the absence of any support matrix, the flow conditions create a selective
environment in which only those microorganisms, capable of attaching to each other, survive
and proliferate.
The blanketing of the sludge enables a dual solid and hydraulic (liquid) retention time in the
digesters. Solids requiring a high degree of digestion can remain in the reactors for periods up
to 90 days. Sugars dissolved in the liquid waste stream can be converted into gas quickly in the
liquid phase which can exit the system in less than a day.
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION:
Anaerobic digestion is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down
biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. It is widely used to treat wastewater sludges
and organic wastes because it provides volume and mass reduction of the input material. As
part of an integrated waste management system, anaerobic digestion reduces the emission of
landfill gas into the atmosphere. Anaerobic digestion is a renewable energy source because the
process produces a methane and carbon dioxide rich biogas suitable for energy production
helping replace fossil fuels. Also, the nutrient-rich solids left after digestion can be used as
fertiliser.
The digestion process begins with bacterial hydrolysis of the input materials in order to break
down insoluble organic polymers such as carbohydrates and make them available for other
bacteria. Acidogenic bacteria then convert the sugars and amino acids into carbon dioxide,
hydrogen, ammonia, and organic acids. Acetogenic bacteria then convert these resulting
organic acids into acetic acid, along with additional ammonia, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide.
The technical expertise required to maintain anaerobic digesters coupled with high capital
costs and lower process efficiencies have so far limited the level of its industrial application
as a waste treatment technology.
Careful control of the digestion temperature, pH, and loading rates is crucial to obtaining
efficient breakdown of the material, and disturbances to a digest can lead to process failure.
Ensuring that the quality of input materials to the digesters is maintained and that the process
effectively monitored is essential for ensuring that a digester's performance is reliable.

Applications:
Anaerobic digestion is particularly suited to wet organic material and is commonly used for
effluent and sewage treatment. Anaerobic digestion is a simple process that can greatly
reduce the amount of organic matter which might otherwise be destined to be landfilled or
burnt in an incinerator.
Almost any organic material can be processed with anaerobic digestion. This includes
biodegradable waste materials such as waste paper, grass clippings, leftover food, sewage and
animal waste. The exception to this is woody wastes that are largely unaffected by digestion
as anaerobes are unable to degrade lignin. Anaerobic digesters can also be fed with specially
grown energy crops such as silage for dedicated biogas production. In Germany and continental
Europe these facilities are referred to as biogas plants. A co-digestion or cofermentation plant
is typically an agricultural anaerobic digester that accepts two or more input materials for
simultaneous digestion. In developing countries simple home and farm-based anaerobic
digestion systems offer the potential for cheap, low-cost energy for cooking and lighting.
Anaerobic digestion facilities have been recognised by the United Nations Development
Programme as one of the most useful decentralised sources of energy supply.
Pressure from environmentally-related legislation on solid waste disposal methods in
developed countries has increased the application of anaerobic digestion as a process for
reducing waste volumes and generating useful by-products. Anaerobic digestion may either
be used to process the source separated fraction of municipal waste, or alternatively combined
with mechanical sorting systems, to process residual mixed municipal waste. These facilities
are called mechanical biological treatment plants Utilising anaerobic digestion technologies
can help to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in a number of key ways:
• Replacement of fossil fuels
 • Reducing methane emission from landfills
• Displacing industrially-produced chemical fertilisers
• Reducing vehicle movements
• Reducing electrical grid transportation losses
Methane and power produced in anaerobic digestion facilities can be utilised to replace energy
derived from fossil fuels, and hence reduce emissions of greenhouse gases .This is due to the
fact that the carbon in biodegradable material is part of a carbon cycle. The carbon released
into the atmosphere from the combustion of biogas has been removed by plants in order for
them to grow in the recent past. This can have occurred within the last decade, but more
typically within the last growing season. If the plants are re-grown, taking the carbon out of the
atmosphere once more, the system will be carbon neutral.This contrasts to carbon in fossil fuels
that has been sequestered in the earth for many millions of years, the combustion of which
increases the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Digestate liquor can be used as a fertiliser supplying vital nutrients to soils. The solid, fibrous
component of digestate can be used as a soil conditioner. The liquor can be used as a substitute
for chemical fertilisers which require large amounts of energy to produce. The use of
manufactured fertilisers is therefore more carbon intensive than the use of anaerobic digestate
fertiliser. This solid digestate can be used to boost the organic content of soils.
The process
There are a number of bacteria that are involved in the process of anaerobic digestion including
acetic acid-forming bacteria (acetogens) and methane-forming bacteria (methanogens). These
bacteria feed upon the initial feedstock, which undergoes a number of different processes
converting it to intermediate molecules including sugars, hydrogen & acetic acid before finally
being converted to biogas.
Different species of bacteria are able to survive at different temperature ranges. Ones living
optimally at temperatures between 35-40°C are called mesophiles or mesophilic bacteria. Some
of the bacteria can survive at the hotter and more hostile conditions of 55-60°C, these are called
thermophiles or thermophilic bacteria. Methanogens come from the primitive group of archaea.
This family includes species that can grow in the hostile conditions of hydrothermal vents.
These species are more resistant to heat and can therefore operate at thermophilic temperatures,
a property that is unique to bacterial families.
As with aerobic systems the bacteria in anaerobic systems the growing and reproducing
microorganisms within them require a source of elemental oxygen to survive. In an anaerobic
system there is an absence of gaseous oxygen. In an anaerobic digester, gaseous oxygen is
prevented from entering the system through physical containment in sealed tanks. Anaerobes
access oxygen from sources other than the surrounding air. The oxygen source for these
microorganisms can be the organic material itself or alternatively may be supplied by inorganic
oxides from within the input material. When the oxygen source in an anaerobic system is
derived from the organic material itself, then the 'intermediate' end products are primarily
alcohols, aldehydes, and organic acids plus carbon dioxide. In the presence of specialised
methanogens, the intermediates are converted to the 'final' end products of methane, carbon
dioxide with trace levels of hydrogen sulfide. In an anaerobic system the majority of the
chemical energy contained within the starting material is released by methanogenic bacteria as
methane.
Populations of anaerobic bacteria typically take a significant period of time to establish
themselves to be fully effective. It is therefore common practice to introduce anaerobic
microorganisms from materials with existing populations. This process is called 'seeding' the
digesters and typically takes place with the addition of sewage sludge or cattle slurry.

Stages:

The key process stages of anaerobic digestion

There are four key biological and chemical stages of anaerobic digestion:
1. Hydrolysis
2. Acidogenesis
3. Acetogenesis
4. Methanogenesis
In most cases biomass is made up of large organic polymers. In order for the bacteria in
anaerobic digesters to access the energy potential of the material, these chains must first be
broken down into their smaller constituent parts. These constituent parts or monomers such as
sugars are readily available by other bacteria. The process of breaking these chains and
dissolving the smaller molecules into solution is called hydrolysis. Therefore hydrolysis of
these high molecular weight polymeric components is the necessary first step in anaerobic
digestion. Through hydrolysis the complex organic molecules are broken down into simple
sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids.
Acetate and hydrogen produced in the first stages can be used directly by methanogens. Other
molecules such as volatile fatty acids (VFA’s) with a chain length that is greater than acetate
must first be catabolised into compounds that can be directly utilized by methanogens. The
biological process of acidogenesis is where there is further breakdown of the remaining
components by acidogenic (fermentative) bacteria. Here VFAs are created along with
ammonia, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide as well as other by-products. The process of
acidogenesis is similar to the way that milk sours.

Digestive:
Digestive is the solid remnants of the original input material to the digesters that the microbes
cannot use. It also consists of the mineralised remains of the dead bacteria from within the
digesters. Digestive can come in three forms; fibrous, liquor or a sludge-based combination of
the two fractions. In two-stage systems the different forms of digestive come from different
digestion tanks. In single stage digestion systems the two fractions will be combined and if
desired separated by further processing.
As per a review of literature, out of 388 cities of Pakistan, only 8 have wastewater treatment
facilities, that too up to primary level. According to the Pakistan Water Situational Analysis,
there are three wastewater treatment plants in Islamabad, of which only one is functional.
Karachi has two trickling filters, where effluents generally receive screening and
sedimentation. Lahore has some screening and grit removal systems, but they are hardly
functional. In Faisalabad, there is a wastewater treatment plant, in which wastewater
receives primary treatment. In rural areas, wastewater treatment is nonexistent, leading to
pollution of surface and groundwater.

Wastewater use/disposal:

Urban centres are the main cause of water pollution in this country. Typically, storm water
drains and nullahs collect and carry untreated sewage which then flows into streams, rivers
and irrigation canals. Although there are some sewerage collection systems, typically
discharging to the nearest water body, collection levels are estimated to be no greater than
50% nationally (less than 20% in many rural areas). As per a careful estimation, the
 wastewater generated in Pakistan is directly used for irrigating an area of about 32,500 ha
(Ensink et al., 2004).

Commonly grown crops include vegetables, fodder, cotton and to some extent rice.
Vegetables receive wastewater irrigation almost twice a week, fodder once a week and
cotton after 3 weeks. The crops grown in suburban areas while using wastewater include
vegetables, and fodder as these fetch high prices in nearby urban markets. The quantity of
N, P and K applied from sewage -

The wastewater used for irrigation is valued by farmers, mainly because of its nutrient
contents and reliability of supply. Reuse of wastewater has many positive impacts on socio-
economic aspects of the users. The data of Anwar et al. (2010) show that there is a major
increase in price of agriculture land due to availability of wastewater and the average land
value was Pak. Rs. 0.3 million per acre before the reuse of wastewater while after the
availability of wastewater as alternative irrigation source it has increased up to Rs. 0.4- 0.6
million per acre. Similarly, monthly income of 87% households has increased and 77%
respondents replied that employment opportunities have been generated.

Land treatment of partially treated wastewater has been used as a low-cost method of
wastewater disposal for a very long time. In Haroonabad (Pakistan), land irrigated with
wastewater has a higher value than the canal irrigated land, and the land rents of wastewater
irrigated farms were on average three and a half times higher than those of canal water
irrigated lands (Hassan et al., 2001). Considering economics, impacts of wastewater
irrigation can be grouped under (1) potential yield losses, (2) loss of soil productive
capacity, (3) depreciation in market value of land, and (4) cost of additional nutrients and
soil reclamation measures. After initial study by Ensink et al. (2004), several researchers of
the country have focused on this area which was neglected in recent past. Further working
on this aspect may only encourage growers about less use of chemical fertilizers unless they
are equally educated about ill effects of wastewater irrigation on soil chemical and physical
properties in addition to contamination of human food chain and related health risks.

Policies and institutional set-up for wastewater management:

Policy aspects and national strategy

There seems no national policy, in effect, on sustainable use of wastewater in this country.
Moreover, economic incentives have not been introduced for industries to acquire
environmentfriendly technology. Problems of wastewater disposal tend to stem from
distortions due to economy-wide policies, failure of targeted environmental policies, and
institutional failures. Uneconomic water pricing exacerbates the problem in urban areas,
where a flat rate is charged or water is provided free of charge, a policy that both encourages
the wasteful use of water and eliminates incentives for suppliers of water services to upgrade
their water supply, treatment, and disposal facilities. Laws and regulations have been
formulated about treatment and disposal of wastewater in this country but their
implementation due to lack of resources and skilled manpower is the real issue. The result is
that, while an appropriate and necessary administrative capacity exists on paper, its
effectiveness is seriously curtailed in practice due to these shortcomings. For example, the
NEQS for industry and municipal discharges were originally formulated in 1993, but even
voluntary compliance and reporting have yet to be instituted because of a lack of practical
monitoring ability in the EPAs; the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system is
mandatory but seldom followed in the public sector; and environmental laboratories have
been established in all provinces but function with skeletal staff and budgets inadequate even
for their routine equipment and chemical needs. Similarly, environmental tribunals have been
created but their capacity to deal with reported cases is extremely restricted, as minimal
personnel have been deputed in only two provinces to collectively oversee the entire country
(WB-CWRAS Paper 3, 2005).

The biggest challenge faced by policymakers at present, is how best to minimize the negative
effects of wastewater use, while at the same time obtaining the maximum benefits from this
resource. While most of the impacts of wastewater use, both negative as well as positive, are
generally known, a comprehensive valuation of the benefits and costs of these impacts has
not as yet been attempted.
Prime importance should be given to the treatment of industrial effluent before it is allowed
to pour in Drain. The environmental laws and their implementation need be dealt more
seriously and responsibly. The practice of usage of untreated wastewater for irrigation of
fields should be immediately stopped as it is harmful for the consumers of those vegetables
and crops. Pumping of groundwater near wastewater drains for drinking purposes must be
avoided. In some cases, sewage is auctioned by the municipalities to the highest bidder,
often a group of rich farmers, who then rent out their fields to poor landless farmers. Under
these conditions, the use of sewage is considered a win- a -win situation by both the
authorities those are responsible for sewage disposal and the farmers who get its reliable
 supply with high nutrient content (Ensink et al., 2004). In relation to wastewater irrigation,
economic analyses should also have to conduct with precise perspectives keeping in mind

Research/practice on different aspects of wastewater:

Up-till now, there is no centre for research on wastewater that deals exclusively with this
issue. Instead, various departments of educational and research bodies randomly do some
research work on this aspect. Most of the studies are published in local journals due to poor
quality of the project work. There is dire need to fortify such scattered efforts so that a
collective future action plan could be devised well in time. For example, up- till now, there
is no short term or long term study available that explains ill effects of wastewater, if any, on
soil physical properties, in this country. In Pakistan where safe effluent disposal facilities
and its treatment are non-existent or limited, raw sewage is used to irrigate fodders,
ornamental and food crops including vegetables (Murtaza et al., 2010).

In developing countries including Pakistan, little work is being conducted on this very
important research area. Limited information is available on the physical treatment of
effluents and soils, bioremediation of effluents and soils, advanced chemical oxidation
treatments, thermal remediation strategies, waste landfills and amendments to decrease
bioavailability. The restriction in research seems to be related solely to the high cost of
implementation on such research. Under these circumstances, at least crop restriction can be
used to protect the health of consumers when water of sufficient quality is not available for
unrestricted irrigation. For example, water of poorer quality can be used to irrigate non-
vegetable crops as cotton, lawns, ornamental or crops that are cooked well before
consumption. There is also lack of information regarding both the short and long term effect
of wastewater on soil physical properties which needs to be addressed. Moreover, if polluted
water treatment at the source is not economically feasible at this time then there should be
screening of crop genotypes which are hyper-accumulators of heavy metals in their eatable
portions, especially vegetables. Laws should be framed, to encourage farmers to grow only
those genotypes which accumulate relatively very low amounts of metals in their eatable
portions, especially around major cities of Pakistan. While genotypic/cultivar differences in
plant uptake of metals are well documented but absolutely no work has been conducted in
this regard in Pakistan. There is hardly any well organized study conducted in this country
which focused on risk assessment in a systematic way. Moreover, there are no studies which
concern heavy metals bioavailability employing animal trials. Some of the systematic work
has been done by IWMI and Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency with financial aid
from foreign donors.

Status and need for the knowledge and skills on the safe use of wastewater:

While a comprehensive national policy and institutional framework for environmental

management is in place, there are significant weaknesses in the current administrative and
implementation capacity, typical of a developing country setting like Pakistan. Principal
among these are a ubiquitous shortage of trained manpower and insufficient budgetary
allocations, a lack of clear definition of roles, work plans and targets, specific capacity gaps
on the safe use of wastewater in irrigation by individuals or institutions dealing with
wastewater management, and ineffective coordination and communication between federal,
provincial and local administrative entities. Most urgently needed is the availability of skilled
human resources for implementing national or international guidelines for the safe use of
wastewater in agriculture or other purposes. There are no regulations in existence that guide
what to be grown with wastewater. Farmers should be made aware of and encouraged to
grow resistant and non food plants (i.e. fiber crops, lawns, parks and ornamental plants) with
wastewater irrigation. A clear and practical strategy needs to be defined to implement
existing policies. There is dire need to minimize weaknesses in coordination among different
sections of the society including the general public, organizations, industrialists and farmers.
Moreover, there is also need to prioritize the knowledge and skills and develop capacities
within various institutions to deal with different aspects of safe use of wastewater in
agriculture.
Conclusions:
Pakistan’s water-resources have been diminishing at an alarming rate, as can be concluded
from the above-stated facts. It is now a water deficit country. The water availability has
decreased from 1,299 m³ per capita in 1996-97 to 1,100 m³ per capita in 2006 and that of
projected less than 700 m³ per capita by 2025. Therefore, search for other non-conventional
water resources for irrigation i.e. wastewater has become important. In Pakistan, it is
estimated that around 2,000 million gallons daily and 962,335 million gallons annually
wastewater is being produced and discharged to surface water bodies. This domestic and
industrial wastewater is either discharged directly to a sewer system, a natural drain or water
body, a nearby field or an internal septic tank. This wastewater is normally not treated and
none of the cities have any biological treatment process except Islamabad and Karachi, and
even these cities treat only a small proportion (<8%) of their wastewater before disposal. The
wastewater used for irrigation is valued by farmers, mainly because of its nutrient contents
and reliability of supply and exert positive impacts on agriculture land values, households,
monthly income and employment due to reuse of wastewater despite of the ill effects of
wastewater irrigation on soil physical and chemical properties in addition to contamination
of human food chain and related health risks. Limited information is available in this regard
and needs capacity development. There seems no national policy in effect on sustainable use
of wastewater in this country. While a comprehensive national policy and institutional
framework for environmental management is in place, there are significant weaknesses in
the current administrative and implementation capacity. A clear and practical strategy needs
to be defined to implement these policies. Moreover, economic incentives have not been
introduced for industries to acquire environment-friendly technology. Problems of
wastewater disposal tend to stem from distortions due to economy-wide policies, failure of
targeted environmental policies, and institutional failures. Thus laws and regulations have
been formulated about treatment and disposal of wastewater but their implementation due to
lack of resources and skilled manpower is the real issue. There is hardly any well organized
study conducted which focused on risk assessment in a systematic way. Some of the
systematic work has been done by IWMI and Pak-EPA with financial aid from foreign
donors. Therefore a wellcoordinated program is necessary to create awareness among
different sections of the society including the general public, organizations, industrialists and
farmers and to remediate polluted wastewater by using modern techniques.
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