Effects of Treated Municipal Wastewater on Soil Chemical Properties and Heavy Metal Uptake by Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor L.)

In order to investigate the effect of treated municipal wastewater on soil chemical properties and heavy metal uptake by sorghum an experiment was carried out in the Institute of Agriculture at Zabol University, Iran 2007 in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The treatments were managed for irrigation; with well water during entire period of growing season as control (T1); wastewater during the first half of growing season (T2); wastewater during the second half of growing season (T3); wastewater and well water alternately (T4) and wastewater during entire period of growing season (T5). The results have indicated that irrigation with wastewater lead to significant increase in N, P, K, Ca, Na, Mg, SAR, EC, O.C% than control treatment (p ≤ 0.05). In addition, the increases of Zn, Fe, Mo in soil, and Cu, Fe in sorghum plant were statistically significant in comparison with control treatment (p≤0.01). The highest transfer coefficient was observed for Mo and Pb (1.28, 1.02), and the lowest for Cu (0.077) which highlight the high absorption power of sorghum toward these elements.