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Industrial sector is the backbone of the development of a country; however, its untreated effluents are damaging various ecological phenomena. Every day huge amounts of municipal, industrial and agricultural wastes are being released into the environment, causing serious ecological problems. Pakistan is currently experiencing profound demographic, economic changes and energy crisis that pose serious limitations on spending capital on water treatment. However, no serious effort has been put forth by any agency in Pakistan to characterize the exact nature and concentrations of contaminants found in wastewaters originating from various industrial zones. The current study aimed to characterize the industrial effluent quality of Hattar Industrial Estate, Hattar, Pakistan. The effluent samples were collected from five different drains, each having the combined effluent of many industries. All the samples were characterized for pH, temperature, TS, TDS, TSS, EC, DO, BOD, COD, turbidity, nitrates (NO 3 -N), phosphates (PO 4 ), ammonia (NH 4 -N) and different heavy metals according to the standard methods. Majority of the water quality parameters exceeded the National Environmental Quality Standards in the country. These pollutants may have serious impacts on the soil profile, groundwater quality and freshwater ecosystems and thus need attention of policy makers to install a centralized wastewater treatment plant.

This research work is focusing on the toxicities of heavy metals of industrial origin to anaerobic digestion of the industrial wastewater. Photobacterium phosphoreum T3S was used as an indicator organism. The acute toxicities of heavy metals on P. phosphoreum T3S were assessed during 15-min half inhibitory concentration (IC50) as indicator at pH 5.5-6. Toxicity assays involved the assessment of multicomponent mixtures using TU and MTI approaches. The results of individual toxicity indicated that the toxicity of Cd, Cu and Pb on P. phosphoreum increased with increasing concentrations and there was a linear correlation. The 15-min IC 50 values of Cd, Cu and Pb were 0.537, 1.905 and 1.231 mg/L, respectively, and their toxic order was Cd [ Pb [ Cu. The combined effects of Cd, Cu and Pb were assayed by equivalent concentration mixing method. The results showed that the combined effects of Cd ? Cu, Cd ? Pb, Cu ? Pb, Cd ? Cu ? Pb were antagonistic, antagonistic and partly additive. The combined effect of three heavy metals was partly additive.

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