Abstract:

Pakistan is one of the developing nations with majority of population living in the semirural and peri-urban areas. Although country is slowly industrializing and services sector is growing, the agriculture is still the mainstay of economy. The major crops, fruits and vegetables are the most important production systems. The vegetable production is predominantly of the secondary importance with major crops being the primary users of irrigation water. The vegetable production is mostly concentrated in the peri-urban regions of the country. Among the other challenges, the vegetable production is also marred with the shortage of clean water for irrigation, resulting in the use of sewerage water for the vegetable production. The sewage water may be utilized as treated (recycled water) or non-treated (raw wastewater) source of water for irrigation. The sewerage water is supplied either directly watering the crops or after release from the water treatment plants. There is a high grouping of various poisonous chemicals and industrial effluent in the treated and untreated sewerage water in Pakistan. The sewerage water in the urban and peri-urban regions also contains substantial amount of metals like zinc, manganese, nickel, chromium, cadmium and lead. The proposed study was conducted in peri-urban areas of Faisalabad. Initially four towns were selected through random stratified sampling and each comprising of 30 respondents. A sample of 120 respondents was selected. Information was gathered through semi structured interviews, scheduled either at the farms or the houses of respondents. The information gathered was analyzed using SPSS.