Public health

Wastewater contain microorganism particularly pathogens, viruses, harmful

bacteria, parasitic microorganism. These organisms can be a cause of many diseases. On
the other hand, the waste water may contain different parasitic organism or eggs of
parasitic organism. These organisms may include tape worms, hookworm, etc. To reduce
the impact on the human health, the waste water can be treated thermally or through any
other means to reduce the microorganism (Hussain, Raschid, Hanjra, Marikar & van der,
2002).

Ecological impact
Wastewater drains from the fields and penetrate the local water bodies. Local
water bodies can be rivers, streams, etc. The phosphorus in the wastewater particularly
ortho-phosphate causes the eutrophication. Eutrophication is the major reason for
reducing the absorption of micro nutrients. The biodiversity is thus impacted. The whole
process reduces the dissolution of oxygen into the water and impacts the marine
biodiversity. The businesses that are associated with the marine biodiversity are also
affected. In this manner, the wastewater can impact the whole environment. However, if
the water is treated to reduce the ortho phosphate and other harmful compounds that can
damage the environment, treated wastewater can be used in agriculture.

Groundwater resources
Wastewater seeps down to the underground water reservoirs and can contaminate
the underground water. Thus, it is important to prevent the wastewater to seep into the
ground. This can be done by making the wastewater channels water tight so that water
seepage into the can be limited. On the other hand, advanced treatment of biological
wastes proposed a method in which the wastewater is pumped into the ground and water
is taken from the ground. The microorganisms present in the soil absorb the biological
wastes in the water and thus pure water can be attained that is passed through several
layers of sediments (Hussain, Raschid, Hanjra, Marikar & van der, 2002).

Soil resources
Besides having many soil enriching nutrients in the wastewater, untreated
wastewater has many other constituents that can pollute the soil. The waste water is also
rich in minerals and salts. On the other hand, the higher content of macro nutrients may
also damage the condition of the soil. The wastewater is also rich in chemical
compounds. All these constituents may degrade the condition of the soil and may damage
the condition of the soil. Long termed use of wastewater may produce condition of saline
the soil (Hussain, Raschid, Hanjra, Marikar & van der, 2002). (Figure 2) shows an
example of the sludge from a typical wastewater treatment plant the can be used in the
soil for particular purposes.

Economics of Wastewater Irrigation

Economic perspective of wastewater irrigation depends on various factors like
pumping costs, land costs, types of corps harvested, use of crops, cost of treatment of
wastewater and regulations regarding wastewater use. Low cost methods of wastes
disposal and municipal water disposal require larger land areas and long time (Scott,
Faruqui & Raschid-Sally, 2004). Some researchers suggest that wastewater should be
used to harvest the crops that should be used for extracting the bio-fuels. Bio-fuels are
becoming the spreading business in the current world scenario, where petroleum fuel
prices are rising day by day. The crops that are produced for the bio-fuels can be
harvested directly on untreated wastewater and thus the cost of treating the wastewater
can be reduced (Galbraith, 2013). However, this strategy can produce some
environmental problems but using a scheme like that used in the hydroponics method can
isolate the crop production from the environment. Hydroponics is a method in which
plants do not require soil; water remains in direct contact with the roots of the plants. This
method saves the water from seeping into the ground and prevents the useful nutrients
from being wasted. This method also prevents the nutrients rich water to enter the
ecology.