The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)  has cautioned the industry against  diverting treated effluents for agricultural purpose saying that it can contain harmful toxins and damage the health of the humans as well as soil quality.

The country's top pollution watchdog has now come out with guidelines to ensure safe usage of treated sewage and effluents from industries in agriculture.

According to agriculturists, using industrial wastewater for agricultural irrigation involve changes to physicochemical and microbiological properties of soils that impact crop growth and water retention capacity of the soil, which in turn could be harmful to health.

The CPCB guidelines follows directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which in May 2019, held that "no industry can be permitted to dispose treated effluents on land for irrigation, plantation or horticulture/gardening by prescribing standards applicable without assessment of adequate availability of land and impacts of such disposal on agricultural/crops /plants and the recipient groundwater."

The guidelines have been prepared by an expert group, which has been constituted by the CPCB, included members from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Delhi and the pollution watchbody as well.

As per the guidelines the industry should engage an agricultural scientist or tie-up with an agricultural university or institute for advice on the utilisation or the rate of application of the effluent for irrigation, considering the agroclimatic conditions.

While the guidelines advocated the use of treated waste water from the industry for irrigation as a way to conserve water resources, given the irregular availability of water, it highlighted the risk of untreated or inadequately treated water. "It is necessary to ensure the beneficial aspects of this practice before application of treated wastewater in irrigation," the guidelines cautioned.