Bioremediation and Reuse of Wastewater for Plant Cultivation Using Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria

Abstract

The lack of proper sanitation and wastewater disposal facilities has increased environmental and public health problems. A paradigm shift from a more conventional form to a sustainable waste disposal system must be developed by recovering and reusing nutrients (Magwaza et al. 2020a). Among the many treatment technologies applied in urban wastewater reuse, hydroponics has been identified as one of the most sustainable and cost-effective technologies (Cifuentes-Torres et al. 2021). The system s efficiency with wastewater reuse is linked to its ability to continuously use wastewater to produce crops and remove pollutants and nutrients, thus helping improve food security and protect the environment. One of the hurdles in reusing wastewater for the cultivation of crops is the presence of xenobiotics, among which heavy metals are among the most persistent ones. The heavy metals at toxic concentrations affect the survival, reproduction, and behavior of the organisms and plants that are exposed to them (Allen-Shaw Patricia and Suter II W. Glenn 2022). Hence, sustainable strategies that utilize wastewater inevitably introduce these contaminants into the ecosystem and affect the food chain leading to their bioaccumulation and biomagnification in higher living beings causing adverse health (Kapoor and Singh 2021). One of the essential heavy metal contaminants in the water is arsenic. It is a highly toxic element found ubiquitously in nature and presents a potential environmental threat to humans, animals, and plants. Chronic arsenic intoxication, including in India, is a critical public health problem globally (Rosas-Castor et al. 2014). Humans are exposed to arsenic mainly through two pathways: direct intake of arseniccontaminated water and the transfer of arsenic through the water-soil-crop system. Remediation of soil and water involves physical, chemical, and biological processes. Of these, the physical and chemical strategies are expensive, labor-intensive, alter the inherent properties of the soil and water..