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The possible effect of the
bioaccumulation of disinfectant by-products on crops
irrigated with treated wastewater
Babatunde C.
Akande, Patrick A. Ndakidemi*, Olalekan Fatoki and James
Odendaal
Faculty of Applied Science, Cape Peninsula University of
Technology, Cape Town Campus, Keizersgracht, P.O. Box 652,
Cape Town 8000, South Africa.
*Corresponding author.
E-mail:
NdakidemiP@cput.ac.za.
Tel: +27214603196. Fax: +27214603193
Accepted 30 December, 2009 |
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The
shortage of potable water for irrigation of food crops in
semi-arid developing countries led to the use of alternative
sources of water. Wastewater is gaining importance for
productive use in agriculture throughout the world. A widely
used and efficient method to
reduce the occurrence of waterborne diseases in numerous
wastewater plants is water chlorination. In early 1970s,
some volatile halogenated organic compounds such as
chloroform were identified in chlorinated surface waters
containing high levels of natural organic material.
Generally, the trihalomethanes (THMs), including chloroform,
bromodicholoromethane, dibromochloromethane and bromoform
were the most prevalent in chlorinated surface water.
Predominant research studies focused on the carcinogenic and
mutagenic properties of these compounds in treated
wastewater. But little attention was paid to how these
compounds in treated wastewater could affect crop
performance in agriculture, physiological changes amongst
crop varieties and the build-up of these organic compounds
in edible plant tissues with persistent use of treated
waste-water. A probable reason for this was the absence of
the practice of wastewater irrigation in food crop
agriculture in the past. Current knowledge on the
trihalomethanes and possible plant interactions with
this group of volatile organic compounds are assessed in
this review.
Key
words:
Antioxidants, biomagnification, chlorophyll, metabolites,
oxidative-stress, photosynthesis, phytotoxicity, seed
germination, trihalomethanes. |
