Incidence of Escherichia coli in Vegetable Crops and Soil Profile Drip Irrigated with Primarily Treated Municipal Wastewater in a Semi-Arid Peri Urban Area

Deepak Singh, Neelam Patel, Agossou Gadedjisso-Tossou, Sridhar Patra, Nisha Singh and Pushpendra Kumar Singh
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Deepak Singh: Hydrology and Engineering Division, ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun 248195, India
Neelam Patel: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, ICAR, New Delhi 110012, India
Agossou Gadedjisso-Tossou: United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), United Nations University, Ammonstraße 74, 01067 Dresden, Germany
Sridhar Patra: Hydrology and Engineering Division, ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Dehradun 248195, India
Nisha Singh: Department of Biochemistry, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (A Central University), Srinagar 246174, India
Pushpendra Kumar Singh: Water Resources Systems Division, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee 247667, India

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: This study investigates the incidence of Escherichia coli in cauliflower, bitter gourd and soil profile drip-irrigated with municipal wastewater in a semi-arid peri-urban area in India. There were four treatments: drip irrigation with primarily treated municipal wastewater through inline (non-pressure compensating) surface drip (T1), inline subsurface drip (T2), bioline (pressure compensating) subsurface drip (T3) and bioline surface drip (T4). Results revealed that T1 had the highest concentration of E.coli (35 ± 2.66 and 25 ± 2.26 colony forming unit (CFU) g ˗1 ) and T3 had the lowest concentration of E. coli (29 ± 2.29 and 18.9 ± 2.04 CFU g ˗1 ) for cauliflower and bitter gourd, respectively. In bitter gourd top fruits (1 m above the ground level), the E. coli count was significantly lower ( p < 0.05) than in the surface level fruits. There was also a considerable reduction of E. coli counts in bioline drip lateral as compared to the inline drip. A higher concentration of E. coli (470 ± 70.5 and 410 ± 36.9 CFU g ˗1 soil) was also found in the top soil (0–0.15 m) in T1 treatment, while the minimum (154 ± 13.86 and 95 ± 14.25 CFU g ˗1 ) was observed in T3. Hence, bioline drip lateral may be a better option for wastewater irrigation as compared to inline drip to reduce microbial contamination of crop and soil.

Keywords: microbial contamination; Escherichia coli; wastewater; inline and bioline drip laterals; vegetable crops; soil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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