Physico-Chemical Analysis of Waste Water Used for Agricultural Purpose in Surrounding of Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan

Irrigation with sewage is common practice of the farmers living in surrounding areas of urban colonies in Pakistan. Sewage contains a complex mixture of impurities. Waste water used for agricultural purpose without any treatment though it contains lot of the harmful impurities. During this study three villages were selected around the Hyderabad city and 12 samples were collected. Various characteristics of the sewage samples were determined such as total residues, total fixed residues, volatile residues, salinity, alkalinity, TDS, temperature, color, pH, conductivity, etc. Aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of waste water. It was found that waste water had moderate to increased hardness and salinity. Moreover, these water samples contained from 300 to 1800 mg/L of total residues. Nevertheless the pH-value was normal, in the range 6.7-7.0, that is suitable for water used for irrigation. Further investigations are required to determine toxicity of the waste water, as well as content and accumulation of heavy metals.