“…Due to the huge amount of sludge production, land application, either directly or after composting, has been the major sludge management around the world, including in different European countries, after incineration ( Wei et al, 2020 ). Although effluent and sludge reuse can address the perennial water scarcity, reduce the water demand, enhance nutrient recycling, improve soil health, mitigate the indiscriminate discharge of pollutants into waterways, and climate change impact; however, these environmental materials need to be carefully managed to prevent the associated environmental, ecological, and public health risks (Hanjra et al, 2012a; Elmi et al, 2020 , Adelodun et al, 2021d ). It is expected that the use of effluent and sludge in agriculture will increase greatly in the future; hence a need for proper guidelines to forestall any associated risks in their usage ( Duarte et al, 2019 , Ferrari et al, 2019 , Akinyemi et al, 2020 , Dalmora et al, 2020 , Dutta et al, 2020 , Oliveira et al, 2020 , Sellaoui et al, 2021a ).…”