Genotoxicity Hazard Assessment of Industrial Effluent Discharge and Domestic Waste Discharge on Surface River Water

Surface water is utilized by humans for the purpose of drinking, domestic usage, industrial usage, irrigation etc. In many parts of the world this surface water is receiving indiscriminate dumping of industrial effluents, domestic sewage and agricultural runoff, thereby, deteriorating the quality of water. Untreated or improperly treated wastewater effluent discharges often contain mutagens especially when the proportion of industrial wastewater in comparison to municipal wastewater is high. Some of the substances found in waste water are genotoxic and are suspected to be possible case of cancers observed in the last decades. This restricts the usage of surface water for potability and direct consumption by human population. Even then, the polluted water is being utilized continuously in many areas as they are the only natural sources of water. Also, toxicity and risk associated with the usage of such waters is ignored. The present study focuses on genotoxicity assessment of water samples taken from upstream and downstream potability sites of Chambal River and also of effluent discharged into Chambal River from two big industries located in Kota (Rajasthan), India. The water samples taken from both upstream and downstream sites of Chambal River and also from the two effluent treatment plants were found to be highly genotoxic. The assays used for genotoxicity assessment were Salmonella typhimurium reverse mutation assay and E. coli. WP2 assay. Genotoxicity tests were found to be an excellent means to study the toxicity and associated risk with these anthropogenic activities on natural water resources.