Treated waste water as an alternative to fresh water irrigation with improved crop production

Day by day water scarcity is increasing and simultaneously waste water generation is also increasing. Therefore, proper management and recycling of waste water is required in order to minimise its ill-effects. One of the productive uses of the industrial waste water is its application in agricultural lands but not every type of industrial waste water is found fit for such application. Thus, in this study comparative analyses of soil, water and vegetable produced (growth and biochemical parameters) by irrigating using tap water and oil refinery waste water were done to bring out the differences between the cultivated vegetables. Numerous parameters from physicochemical properties of water, soil, germination, morphology, growth rate to biochemical aspects of the vegetables were analysed. It was found that epicotyl, hypocotyl and the growth of root were better when using the effluents in irrigation. Nutritional value of effluent-irrigated plants was found to be higher, as fruits contained appreciable amounts of protein, ascorbic acid, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and phosphorus.