Rice Cultivation with Reclaimed Wastewater Irrigation for Wastewater Reuse

TLDR: In this paper, the effects of various wastewater treatment levels on water quality, paddy soil, crop growth, yields, and health hazards were investigated, and the primary results indicate that cultivating rice with reclaimed wastewater irrigation did not cause a problem to adverse effects on crop growth and yields.

Abstract: The objective of the research is to develop agricultural resue technologies of reclaiming the effluents from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and reusing for irrigated rice paddies. The Suwon wastewater treatment plant was selected for wastewater reuse tests. The control was the plots with groundwater irrigation (TR＃1), the treatment (TR＃2) using polluted stream water as it was, and three others using wastewater after treatment. Three levels of wastewater treatments were employed： the effluent from the wastewater treatment plant (TR＃3), sand filtering after treatment plant(TR＃4), and ultra-violet treatment after sand filtering (TR＃5). The randomized block method was applied to wastewater application to paddy rice with five treatments and six replica. The effects of various wastewater treatment levels on water quality, paddy soil, crop growth, yields, and the health hazards were investigated. The primary results indicate that cultivating rice with reclaimed wastewater irrigation did not cause a problem to adverse effects on crop growth and yields. Overall, wastewater could be used as a practical alternative measure for reclaimed wastewater irrigation. However, long-term monitoring is recommended on the effects on soil chemical characteristics and its related health concerns.