Surface Water Nitrogen Load Due to Food Production-Supply System in South Asian Megacities: A Model-based Estimation
Advances and Trends in Agricultural Sciences Vol. 1,
Page 123-132
Abstract
Food production and supply system contributed more than 90% of the nitrogen originated in south Asian megacities that pollute the surface water. Five megacities of three South Asian countries were considered in this study. These countries are developing and their population is increasing tremendously. All the five megacities are very densely urbanized. A numerical model has been used to calculate the anthropogenic nitrogen load on the environment. FAO statistics on fertilizer consumption and food balance data sheet has been used to calculate the nitrogen load. Human waste plays the vital role in nitrogen production of south Asian megacities. So, in these contexts the nitrogen load for all the study areas extremely harmful for environment and ever increasing population also increased the load of nitrogen on surface water produced from human waste which also very awful for the environment. So, a proper sewage treatment facility is compulsory for all the study areas. Four findings has been identified are; (1) for all three countries, rice and wheat production-supply produce the maximum amount of nitrogen. (2) Though the amount of nitrogen due to fertilizer input more or less same among the countries but amount of produced nitrogen due to human waste is huge in Bangladesh. (3) Moreover, in city scale, the amount of nitrogen due to fertilizer input is maximum in Delhi city and negligible in Kolkata due to an insignificant amount of farmland. (4) Interestingly, the maximum amount of nitrogen load in surface water is in Kolkata city due to human waste but Mumbai and Dhaka shows a medium amount of nitrogen load. This can give the estimation for city wise untreated nitrate content and this is necessary for the capacity development of existing sewerage treatment plant as well as the establishment of new plants.
Keywords:
- Nitrogen load
- South Asia
- megacities
- numerical model
- water pollution
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