Hazardous Impact of Industrial Wastewater Utilization on Quality Parameters of Tomatoes

Due to shortage of good quality water and being enriched in nutrients industrial wastewater is commonly employed for irrigation of crops. The industrial state of Sargodha directly discharges its effluents that flow into a stream. This industrial wastewater was taken for this trial. The contaminants of the stream water were utilized for this trial to check its impacts on soil properties and growth of tomato plants. The physiochemical parameters of the soil such as pH, EC, organic matter, heavy metals and physiological parameters of the tomato plants were observed. Most of the soil parameters were proved higher with the irrigation of the industrial wastewater effluents than the soil irrigated with canal water. The tomato plants were grown at the different ratios of industrial wastewater. The experiment of the tomato plants was arranged according to complete randomized design (CRD) using 06 treatments replicated four times. Treatments included T₁ = 100% CW (canal water) irrigation; T₂ = 100% WW (wastewater) irrigation; T₃ = CW 75% + WW 25%; T₄ = CW 50% + WW 50%; T₅ = CW 25% + WW 75% and T₆ = Cyclic/alternate use of CW and WW. Findings of present research implied that irrigation with wastewater significantly improved the growth and nutrient acquisition of tomato plants. Highest values for N (5.8%), P (0.88%) and K (2.4%) content of tomatoes were recorded when 100% wastewater was applied as a source of irrigation. However, it is the cyclic use of wastewater with canal water that can safely be used for getting good quality tomatoes and to mitigate hazardous impact of heavy metals contained in wastewater.