Feasibility of reuse of wastewater Tafreshʼs municipal sewage treatment plant in agriculture

Approximately, seventy percent of the water used in the world, including all the water diverted from rivers and pumped from underground is used for agricultural irrigation. Use of treated wastewater for irrigation is considered as an important alternative water source in the new water management strategy of the countries facing severe deficiency of water resources. The aim of this study is to examine the possibility of using the wastewater of Tafreshʼs municipal sewage treatment plant for agriculture irrigation. This research is a descriptive-cross sectional study. For this purpose, some of the physical, chemical, and microbial parameters regarding the wastewater quality of Tafreshʼs municipal sewage treatment plant between April and September 2017 were measured on a monthly basis, then compared with the standards of Iranian Environmental Protection Organization, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), World Health Organization (WHO) and World Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and analyzed by Excel software. Results showed that the average residual concentration in wastewater effluent for COD, BOD, DO, TSS, lead, copper, cadmium in mg/L and pH were 35.08, 17.56, 0.92, 25.40, 0.038, 0.017, 0.003 and 7.60, respectively. The total average of removal efficiency for COD, BOD5 and TSS were calculated as 90.13, 92.28 and 89.49%, respectively. Values of microbial parameters were total coliform 194.16, fecal coliform 897.50, manufacturer part number (MPN)/100 ml. The results showed that the mean values of the quality parameters of the studied output wastewater of municipal sewage treatment plant in the city of Tafresh were in the standard range for the uses of agriculture and irrigation.