Study of Heavy Metal Uptake by the Crops Grown by Using Urban Wastewater of Mysore City, India

In the 21st century the fresh water scarcity increased very rapidly due to the urbanization and industrialization process. In these conditions the urban wastewater plays an important role in the water usage criteria. In this aspect, in all the major cities, wastewater treatment plants have been constructed to treat the urban wastewater in view of decreasing the water scarcity. The presence of nutrients in the wastewater is considered as beneficial to agricultural practices. The contaminants present in the wastewater pose health risks directly to agricultural workers and indirectly to the consumers as the long term application of the wastewater may result in the accumulation of toxic elements in soil and in plants. In this way the heavy metals will circulate among the food chain and food web to cause adverse effects on human health as well as on soil health. In the present study an attempt has been made to study the characteristics of urban wastewater at wastewater treatment plant of Mysore city. And also heavy metal behavior was studied with the analysis of heavy metals in wastewater, Biosolid and receiving soil along with the plants which indicates the uptake of heavy metals.