Office for Environmental Programs - Theses

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    The TDS content of treated wastewaters and how this impacts on the reuse of these wastewaters for irrigating crops: with particular reference to China and neighbouring countries
    Wang, Hui ( 2005)
    With the rapid growth of population, water shortage is becoming one of the major barriers for sustainable development of human society. Among various options to solve the problem, wastewater reuse is considered as an attractive way with great environmental and economical benefits. Worldwide, irrigation is a very common practice with regard to wastewater reuse. However, a major concern with the long-term application of treated wastewater in irrigation is the potential for salts to build up in the soil. With review of related literatures, this paper analysed the total dissolved salts in raw and treated wastewater and explained the potential salinity and sodicity hazards that they would cause. The formation of salinity and sodicity is a complex process that not only depends on the level of total dissolved salts but also relates to other factors such as weather conditions, crop selection, soil property, irrigation methods, legislation and field practice. Therefore, to maximise crop production and soil protection, it is necessary to adopt an integrated approach to manage crop irrigation using treated wastewater. And the implementation of the integrated approach will determine whether the reuse of treated wastewater is successful especially for countries that wastewater is directly used for crops irrigation without any protective procedures.