Abstract:
Wastewater production and disposal have become issues of concern with the growing population and increase in overall water usage. About 4.36 billion m3 (BCM) of wastewater is generated every year in Pakistan and not even 1% of the total wastewater gets treated before its disposal. The reported research aims to assess the concentration of contaminants in wastewater. Samples of wastewater were collected from Wali Muhammad Canal, Multan, and analyzed for heavy metals (HMs) including cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), nickle (Ni), and zinc (Zn), along with basic physicochemical parameters including biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total solids (TS), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), residual sodium carbonates (RSC), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), carbonates (CO3), and bicarbonates (HCO3) by using standard analytical procedures. The contamination in the wastewater includes temperature, pH, EC, BOD, COD, TS, TDS, TSS, Na, Ca, Mg, K, SAR, RSC, CO3, HCO3, Cu, Ni, Cd, and Zn was 28.6 oC, 9.3, 2.47 uScm-1, 304mg/L, 408mg/L, 19160 mg/L, 14290mg/L, 4880mg/L, 2.96mg/L, 37.6meL1, 119.3meL-1, 31.33mg/L, 1.46meL-1, 2.50meL-1, 7.06meL-1, 7.16meL-1, 0.154mg/L, 0.024mg/L, 0.054mg/L, and 4.45mg/L respectively. The disposal of untreated wastewater into the surface water bodies is damaging the whole ecosystem. The government should monitor the industries' wastewater disposal according to the nation's efluent standards, and make wastewater treatment plants for the elimination of hazardous contaminants.