Integrated Management of Wastewater through Sewage Fed Aquaculture for Resource Recovery and Reuse of Treated Effluent: A Case Study

Abstract

India has 18% of the world's population, 1.15 billion people, but access to only 4% of world's fresh water resources. In the recent past, the dependency of Indian agriculture on ground water resources has increased upto an enormous extent due to several factors including increased demand of food, erratic behavior of monsoon, developmental pressure of various allied sectors etc. Currently, the available 70% of water resources in India being used to fulfill the water demand for agriculture and the 80% of domestic water supplies come from groundwater which led to rapidly declining groundwater tables in most of the states in India and has found no longer sustainable. Present study has primarily highlights the need of the Indian conditions for treatment and reuse of wastewater which happens to be the main cause for pollution of water resources in India. In this study efforts were made for assessment the potential of model sewage fed aquaculture system of capacity 8 MLD in Karnal, India for wastewater treatment, reuse and resource recovery during the treatment process. The in-depth evaluation study were conducted for integrated assessment of STP in association with health, environment, society, and institutions aspects as well as quality of treated effluent subjected for reuse in irrigation. The Economic analysis of the model sewage-fed aquaculture system shows that there was an annual profit of INR 8-10 lakhs through selling of fish in local market as well as ample amount of revenue generated through selling of treated effluent to the farmers. Also, the irrigation with treated wastewater able to save the fertilizer upto 50kg of Urea and 50kg of diammonium phosphate during cultivation of one acre of crop annually. The system was found good for removal of physic-chemical pollutants and also found very effective in removal of bacteriological pollutants. The reported removals for total coliform, fecal coliform and fecal streptococci were found 99.988, 99.965 and 99.9567, respectively.

Post-treatment and reuse of secondary effluents using natural ltreatment systems: the Indian practices

“…At some locations as in the above-studied, sewage-fed aquaculture system, a business model has been created for managing the wastewater as well as creation of jobs and revenue. The cultivated fish from sewage-fed aquaculture activities are readily accepted by the nearby community, and as a result, many municipalities are planning to adopt this type of successful model (Starkl et al 2013;Kumar et al 2014). The use of fish that are being cultivated through sewage-fed aquaculture may pose a potential health risk through bacteriological or viral contamination if not properly cooked.…”

Can Urban Local Ponds Help Tackle Domestic Water Scarcity and Build Resilience? with Reference to South Asian Cities and City Regions

“…The Central Pollution Control Board of India highlighted that this not only poses a direct public health hazard but also threatens the contamination of already fast depleting groundwater sources. The two main reasons responsible for deterioration of water resources according to Kumar et. al.…”

Potential Uses of Treated Municipal Wastewater in a Semiarid Region of Mexico

“…Then it would be feasible to raise crops with higher value, such as vegetables and fruits. Based on related studies [1,2,4,7,16,57,58] and on the characteristics of the study region (distance between treatment plants and agriculture zone, quality of water, deficit of green areas and scarcity of water), several benefits are expected from this scenario:…”