Increasing urbanization, industrialization and over population is leading to the degradation of the environment. The main hazardous contents of the water pollution are heavy metals etc. Water bodies are the main targets for disposing the pollutants directly or indirectly. They are again at the receiving end as the storm water, residential and commercial waste is disposed into it. The prevailing purification technologies used to remove the contaminants are too costly and sometimes non-eco friendly also. Therefore, the research is oriented towards low cost and eco friendly technology for water purification, which will be beneficial for community. The present paper is a comprehensive review of approximately 38 literature sources. The paper discusses the potential of different aquatic plants (macrophytes) in purifying water and wastewater. Experimental work was developed to test the hypothesis that nutrient enrichment enhances metal tolerance of relative macrophyte.

Lakes, ponds, and streams are the sources of surface water, which anchorage the survival of aquatic life flora and fauna and maintain ecological balance. Due to urbanization, population explosion, and industrialization, these natural sources are getting polluted. Present paper is an attempt to evaluate the uptake rate of heavy metals namely lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), and chromium (Cr) by the macrophytes. The two macrophytes taken for the study are Eichhornia crassipes and Hydrilla verticillata. Both macrophytes have the capacity to absorb heavy metals from contaminated water. The present experimental study was conducted to compare and identify their potential to improve the water quality by removing the heavy metals. The paper critically evaluates the water-purifying capacity of submerged macrophyte (H. verticillata) and free-floating macrophyte (E. crassipes). It also evaluates the extent up to which heavy metal can be removed by macrophyte in a given period of time.

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Heavy metals are one of the prominent sources of pollution in industrial wastewater and excessive presence of these metals is causing severe health and environmental problems. The prevailing purification technologies used to remove these contaminants are costly and sometimes not eco-friendly, so industries often try to escape from their responsibilities that, in turn, creates severe problems for existence of life. There is a great need to put intense and expeditious efforts into the search for more feasible and effective technologies to mitigate this problem.Several aquatic weeds are capable of sorbing metal ions from their solution and could be utilized as one of the cheapest sources for the treatment of waste water. Our study deals with the characteristics of this sorption process for chromium, lead, zinc and iron with macrophyte Hydrilla verticillata. The data are mathematically modeled with statistical analysis. H. verticillata is found to have great efficiency in removing metal ions from the sample of water. The process is ecofriendly and if applied in an efficient manner, would prove to be the best method to tackle the problem growing metal ion pollution in water bodies. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hn.v8i0.4902Hydro Nepal Issue No. 8, 2011 JanuaryPage: 19-23Uploaded date: 16 June, 2011