Abstract
The age-old practice of utilizing wastewater into fishpond in the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), India, is a unique example of resource recovery. The wetlands, providing a range of ecosystem services, form the base of ecological security of the entire region and livelihoods of the dependent communities. Being a dynamic ecosystem, the wetland is subject to influence from various natural as well as human factors. Integrated management of this ecosystem is crucial for maintaining the rich productivity of the wetland ecosystem as well as achieving wise use of resources. The present chapter is an effort to present broadly the ecological-economic linkages of the wetland uses with emphasis on the economics of aquaculture, horticulture, and agriculture under the waste recycling practices.
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Notes
- 1.
This untreated water, mostly Kolkata city’s domestic sewage, through the canals is first collected in primary ponds with heavy growth of macrophytes. The wastewater allowed to stand for considerable period of time is diverted to aquaculture ponds and then agricultural fields for further use. Agriculturalists and aquaculturists believe the whole process help in natural purification of the gray water and its sustainable use.
- 2.
The resource recovery system in EKW follows a scientific approach wherein huge amount of sewage is treated through pisciculture. The wetlands act as waste-stabilizing ponds, while the slow-moving canal system functions as anaerobic and facultative ponds. The removal mechanisms for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrogen, and phosphorus are the settling of nutrients followed by their incorporation/uptake into algal biomass which is consumed by fishes getting incorporated into fish biomass. According to the aquaculturists, the cumulative efficiency in reducing the BOD of the sewage wastewater in these ponds is above 80% and that in reducing the coliform bacteria is about 99.99% on an average. The solar radiation is also reported about 250 langleys/day, adequate for photosynthesis. In fact, the sewage-fed fishery ponds in EKW act as solar reactors, trapping solar energy by thickly growing plankton, which is consumed by the planktivorous fishes. The plankton plays significant role in degrading the organic matter in the wastewater. The fishes, grazing on the planktons, maintain proper balance of the plankton population in the pond and convert the nutrients in the wastewater into consumable form (fish biomass) for humans. This complex ecological process is made use by the fish farmers of the EKW to produce fish at production cost unmatched in any other freshwater fishponds of this country.
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Acknowledgment
Authors are indebted to Dr. Sushma Panigrahy, Group Director (Retd.), Space Research Organization, and Indian Space Research Organization India, for her valuable advice in drafting the article. Authors express their gratitude to Mrs. Sourosheni Guha Ray, Dr. Mausumi Pal, Mr. Suman Kumar Dey, and Mrs. Anjana Saha for their technical help during the project survey.
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Kundu, N., Chakraborty, A. (2017). Dependence on Ecosystem Goods and Services: A Case Study on East Kolkata Wetlands, West Bengal, India. In: Prusty, B., Chandra, R., Azeez, P. (eds) Wetland Science . Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3715-0_20
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