Effect of untreated sewage effluent irrigation on heavy metal content, microbial population and enzymatic activities of soils in Aligarh

The study pertains to the impact of domestic and industrial sewage water irrigation on the chemical, biological and enzymatic activities in alluvial soils of Aligarh District. Results showed that soil enzymatic [dehydogenase (DHA), acid and alkaline phosphatase, urease and catalase] activities in the soils increased up to 14 days of incubation and thereafter inhibited significantly. The enzymatic activity were in the order sewage effluent> partial sewage effluent> ground water irrigated soils. Increase in soil enzymatic activities up to 2nd week of incubation was due to decomposition of organic matter. Maximum inhibition of enzymatic activities, after 14 days of incubation were found in sewage effluent irrigated soils and minimum in ground water irrigated soils. Similar trend was also seen for microbial population. Soil enzymatic activities and microbial population were significantly and positively correlated with soil organic matter. Results also indicated that the microbial population and enzymatic activities in sewage irrigated soils decreased continually with irrigation period. The average concentration of total heavy metals in sewage irrigated soils and partial sewage irrigated soils increased and was 3and 2 times higher for Zn; 4.5and 1.7 times higher for Cu; 3.8 and 2.4 times higher for Cr; 5.7and 3.5 times higher for Pb; 3.5and 2.2 times higher for Cd and 2.7and 2.0 times higher for Ni respectively than that of ground water irrigated soils. Results also showed that though total heavy metals concentration increased with period of sewage irrigation but the concentration of diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) extractable heavy metals in partial sewage irrigated and sewage irrigated soils remained almost same, which might be due to deposition of heavy metals in crops grown on the soils.