Sustainable Mitigation of Wastewater Issues Using Microbes: Hurdles and Future Strategies

Exponential growth in population associated with changing lifestyle patterns and industrial upheaval has led to the degradation of the most valuable renewable resource i.e. water. Contamination of water bodies of varying sizes across the world has resulted in mass-scale deterioration of health and environmental adversaries. Uninhibited disposal of domestic, municipal and industrial effluents onto water bodies has severely impacted the flora and fauna, in turn affecting human health globally. If unchecked, this would lead to an unmitigated disaster, which would be detrimental to the very existence of humans on the planet. Wastewater remediation, therefore, is of paramount importance to safeguard water bodies and prevent them from excessive pollution. To that end, novel, sustainable technologies for elevated nutrient removal from wastewater are the need of the hour. Bioremediation of wastewater is one of the most prolific and novel approaches directed towards the efficient elimination of contaminants coupled with their subsequent conversion into value-added products. Over the last few decades, microbial treatment processes have gained increasing momentum due to their ease and high efficiency compared to conventional treatment technologies. The chapter provides a detailed overview of various biological wastewater treatment methodologies such as bacterial, fungal, microalgal and microalgae-bacteria consortium-mediated bioremediation.