A comparative study of metals concentration in agricultural soil and vegetables irrigated by wastewater and tube well water

Abstract Heavy metals pollution of soil due to untreated urban and industrial wastewater is a major threat to the ecological integrity and human well-being. This study was aimed to evaluate the metals concentration in agricultural soil and vegetables irrigated by different irrigation sources. For this purposeagricultural soil andeight vegetables used for commercial consumption were collected from wastewater and tube well water irrigated sites of Lahore district. Metals i.e.iron (Fe), sodium (Na), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca) were analyzed via flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Concentration of metals in soil and vegetables irrigated by wastewater was higher considerably as compared to the soil and vegetables irrigated by tube well water. Among metals concentration in vegetables cultivated by wastewater, trend appeared as K > Na > Ca > Mg > Fe while vegetables irrigated by tube well water, trend appeared as K > Ca > Na > Mg > Fe. Similarly, leafy vegetables accumulated higher concentration of metals as compared to the non-leafy vegetables.