Remediation of Kalyani River water using plant-bacterial cell synergism Sultan Abdulkadir * , Monika Chhimwal and Rajeev Kumar Srivastava Department of Environmental Science, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, 263145 Udham Singh Nagar, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India *Corresponding author. E-mail: sultesh@gmail.com SA, 0000-0001-6810-7865 ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to evaluate the potential of plant-immobilized bacterial cells synergism for enhanced remediation of pol- luted river water. The polluted river water sample was collected from Kalyani river, Uttarakhand, India and characterized by high concentration of COD (1010 mg/l), BOD (230 mg/l), NO 3 À -N (30 mg/l), PO 4 3À -P (48.9 mg/l), and Pb (1.028 mg/l). This water sample was treated on a lab scale with immobilized bacterial cells and Epipremnum aureum in various treatment setups. The treatment system 3 using a combination of immobilized bacterial cells and Epipremnum aureum had the highest pollutant removal efficiency of all the treatment setups tested. At 96 hours, the total COD, BOD, NO 3 À -N, PO 4 3À -P and Pb contents of polluted river water sample were reduced to 60 mg/l, 20 mg/l, 2.4 mg/l, 11.7 mg/l, and 0.065 mg/l, respectively. Based on the findings, it is possible to conclude that utilizing plant-immobilized bacterial cell synergism is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective approach for enhanced remediation and rejuvenation of polluted river water. Furthermore, a field-scale application of plant-immobilized bacterial cell synergism via floating wetland construction for on- site treatment of contaminated water on the Kalyani river is recommended. Key words: Epipremnum aureum, polluted river water, remediation, surface water resource HIGHLIGHTS • Bacillus sp. AK1 and AK3 were immobilized in sodium alginate and used for remediation of polluted river water. • The combined use of immobilized bacteria and Epipremnum aureum resulted in a high pollutant removal efficiency. • Inoculation of immobilized bacterial cells in the treatment system improved heavy metal uptake ability of Epipremnum aureum. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposes with no derivatives, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). © 2022 The Authors Water Supply Vol 00 No 0, 1 doi: 10.2166/ws.2021.451 corrected Proof Downloaded from http://iwaponline.com/ws/article-pdf/doi/10.2166/ws.2021.451/990765/ws2021451.pdf by guest on 27 January 2022