– Are we eating veggies that are cultivated in wastewater?

a new 53-city survey, including Bangalore and Chennai, conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) indicates that most of those studied are using untreated or partially treated wastewater for agriculture. In over 70 per cent of the cities studied, more than half of urban agricultural land is irrigated with wastewater that is either raw or diluted in streams with wide ranging implications. Less said the better for the health hazards due to heavy metals, a wide spectrum of pathogens and organic compounds that are hazardous to the environment and human health.

“In areas where infectious diseases due to enteric pathogens are common, these pathogens are found in very high concentrations in the sewage water. When this water is used for irrigation without any treatment the pathogens are applied to the agricultural land. This is a potential health risk to people exposed to it, such as field workers and their families, consumers and handlers of wastewater-irrigated crops and people living in the neighborhood, passing the fields frequently” says this report.