ABSTRACT
232The use of wastewater in agriculture is increasingly important as the world’s population increases. The influence of treated or untreated wastewater disposal for irrigation is one of the main concerns of this chapter. From several studies, it has been confirmed that direct use of wastewater for crop irrigation is very injurious to health. Wastewater contains many kinds of contaminants sch as, metal, microbial pathogens, chemical, antibiotics or medicinal and many more. These contaminants come in contact with plants, crops or farmers and cause severe health issues by consuming wastewater-irrigated crops or vegetables. This chapter explores the several types of contaminantes and their role in causing diseases. Another important issue is of open burning of agricultural waste on filed after harvesting crop. This is even more serious concern that wastewater-irrigated crops may burnet after harvesting on the field. Due to open burning, it may release many toxic compounds in the air and soil, which could also participate in ground water contamination through leaching process. So, instead of burning on the field, it might be useful to utilize them as energy produces as biofuel production. In this chapter, an occurrence and detection of antibiotic resistance in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been considered in association with the use of wastewater in agriculture and possible effects. These are the issues, which are very useful to discuss and spread the awareness in farmers and consumers especially in developing countries because they generally use untreated wastewater for crop irrigation.
