Evaluation of Reuse of Wastewater in Agriculture in Turkey: Outbreak Perspective of Covid-19

Year 2020, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 178 - 192, 24.07.2020

Numan Habip , Yusuf Başaran , Arife Özüdoğru , Osman Özdemir , Onur Altun , Yakup Karaaslan , Bilal Dikmen

https://doi.org/10.31807/tjwsm.748590

Cited By: 1

Abstract

The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 has become a public health emergency worldwide. The virus, SARS-CoV-2 is spread by human to human transmission via droplets or direct contact. Although there is no evidence of its transmission from wastewater, the virus has been discovered in wastewater. Recent studies showed that SARS-CoV-2 is very sensitive to oxidants such as chlorine. Therefore, disinfection units of treatment plants need to be operated to avoid virus existence in the environment. Moreover, the disinfection process is vital if treated water is going to be used in irrigation. More than one-third of the effluents of wastewater treatment plants in Turkey reaches to agricultural irrigation facilities. The majority of these waste water treatment plants do not have a disinfection unit. Agricultural areas irrigated with treated wastewater have a rich crop pattern in Turkey. Almost half of these agricultural areas used to grow raw-consumable products. Therefore, disinfection units need to be operated properly and the facilities without disinfection unit should be revised. Moreover, regulations are not comprehensive to prevent public health in terms of reuse of wastewater in agriculture in Turkey. There are one regulation and one standard available considering reuse of wastewater in irrigation but neither of them is not covering indirect reuse of treated wastewater in the downstream. Therefore, to prevent public health it is needed to update regulations to include indirect reuse of wastewater.

Keywords

Sars-Cov-2, , covid-19, wastewater, water reuse, irrigation

Project Number

2012K050220

References

• Alpaslan Kocamemi, Bilge & Kurt, Halil & Sait, Ahmet & Sarac, Fahriye & Saatci, Ahmet & Pakdemirli, Bekir. (2020). SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Istanbul Wastewater Treatment Plant Sludges. 10.1101/2020.05.12.20099358.
• Angelakis, A.; Snyder, S. Wastewater treatment and reuse: Past, present, and future. Water 2015, 7, 4887– 4895.
• Ayers, R.; Wescott, D. Water Quality for Agriuclture; FAO: Rome, Italy, 1985; p. 174.
• Casanova, L., Rutala W. A. Weber D. J., Sobsey M. D.,Survival of Surrogate Coronaviruses in Water. Water Research Volume 43, Issue 7, Pages 1893-1898, 2009 Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Agency for International Development. Guidelines for Water Reuse; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Washington, DC, USA, 2012.
• Environmental Protection Agency. Guidelines for Water Reuse; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Washington, DC, USA, 2004.
• Evans, B.; Mara, D. Sanitation and Water Supply in Low-Income Countries; Ventus Publishing: Leedes, UK, 2011.
• FAO.Wastewater Treatment and Use in Agriculture. Avaliable online: http://www.fao.org/docrep/T0551E/ T0551E00.htm (accessed on 20 May 2020).
• Felizatto, M. Projeto integrado de tratamento avançado e reúso direto de águas residuárias. In Proceedings of the 21 Congresso Brasileiro de Engenharia Sanitária e Ambiental, João Pessoa, Brasil, 16–21 September 2001; pp. 1–17.
• Gertjan Medema, Leo Heijnen, Goffe Elsinga, Ronald Italiaander, Anke Brouwer. Presence of SARS- Coronavirus-2 in sewage. s.l. : medRxiv, 2020.
• Jaramillo, M.F. Potencial de Reuso de Aguas Residuales Domesticas como Estrategia de Prevención y Control de la Contaminación en el Valle Geográfico del rio Cauca. Master’s Thesis, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, 2014.
• Jiménez, B.; Rose, J. Urban Water Security: Managing Risks; UNESCO Publishing: New York, NY, USA, 2009.La Rosa, G.; Banadonna, L.; Lucentini, L.; Kenmoe, S., Suffredini, E.; Coronavirus In Water Environments: Occurrence, Persistence And Concentration Methods - A Scoping Review. Water Research Volme 179 115899, 2020.
• Mara, D.; Kramer, A. The 2006 who guidelines for wastewater and greywater use in agriculture: A practical interpretation. In Efficient Management ofWastewater; Springer: Berlin, Germany, 2008; pp. 1–17.
• Mara, D.; Sleigh, P.; Blumenthal, U.; Carr, R. Health risks in wastewater irrigation: Comparing estimates from quantitative microbial risk analyses and epidemiological studies. J. Water Health 2007, 5, 39– 50.
• Manga, J.; Logreira, N.; Serrait, J. Reuso de aguas residuales: Un recurso hídrico disponible. Ingeniería y Desarrollo 2001, 9, 12–21.
• Naddeo, V; Liu, H.; Editorial Perspectives: 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2): what is its fate in urban water cycle and how can the water research community respond? 2020, Environmental Science Water Research & Technology
• Pimentel, D.; Pimentel, M. Food, Energy, and Society; Taylor & Francis Group: Boca Raton, FL, USA, 2008.
• Romero, J. Acuiquímica; Escuela colombiana de ingeniería: Bogotá, Colombia, 1996.
• Organization, World Health. Water, sanitation, hygiene, and waste management for the COVID-19 virus. s.l. : World Health Organization, 2020.
• Seguí, A. Sistemas de Regeneración y Reutilización de Aguas Residuales. Metodología para el Análisis Técnico- Económico y Casos. Ph.D. Thesis, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña Espana, Barcelona, Spain, 2004.
• T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı Mevzuat Bilgi Sistemi.Atıksu Arıtma Tesisi Teknik Usuller Tebliği. Avaliable online: https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuat?MevzuatNo=13873&MevzuatTur=9&MevzuatTertip=5 (accessed on 20 May 2020).
• TSE.Wastewater Sulama Suyu. Avaliable online: https://intweb.tse.org.tr/Standard/Standard/Standard.aspx?0811180511151080511041191101040 55047105102120088111043113104073098072050111078079080052089102119 (accessed on 20 May 2020).
• Von Sperling, M. Princípios do Tratamento Biológico de Águas Residuárias: Principios Básicos so Tratamento de Esgoto; UFMG universitarios: Minas Gerais, Brasil, 1996; p. 243.
• WHO. Guidelines for the Safe Use ofWastewater. Excreta and Greywater in Agriculture. Volume 2. Wastewater Use in Agriculture; WHO Press: Geneve, Switzerland, 2006.