The industrial augmentation and unguided anthropogenic activities contaminate water sources in most parts of the world especially in developing countries like Pakistan. High concentration of pollutants in groundwater affects human, soil, and crop health badly. The present study was conducted to investigate groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation purposes in an industrial zone of Pakistan. A GIS tool was used to investigate the spatial distribution of different physico-chemical parameters. In this study, the average results exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) and National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) were found for pH 7.84, total dissolved solids (TDS) 1492 mg/L, phosphate 0.51 mg/L, dissolved oxygen (DO) 9.92% saturation, F-coli 6.48 colonies/100 mL, Na⁺ 366 mg/L, HCO₃⁻ 771 mg/L, sulfate 251 mg/L, chlorides 427 mg/L, total hardness (as CaCO₃) 292 mg/L, electrical conductivity (EC) 2408 μS/cm, iron (Fe) 0.48 mg/L, chrome (Cr) 0.50 mg/L, arsenic (As) 0.04 mg/L, total phosphorus (TP) 0.17 mg/L, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) 9.76 (in meq/L), residual sodium carbonate (RSC) 9.28 meq/L, % ion balance 14.4 (in meq/L), percentage sodium ion (% Na⁺) concentration 58.9 meq/L, and water quality index (WQI) 69.0. The trend of cations and anions were (in meq/L) Na > Mg > Ca > K and HCO₃ > Cl > CO₃ > SO₄ respectively. Although the results of the present study showed poor conditions of the groundwater for drinking as WQI but and irrigation purposes as SAR, it needs to improve some more conditions for the provision of safe drinking water and irrigation water quality.

Abiotic stresses, such as heat, salt, waterlogging, and multiple-stress environments have significantly reduced wheat production in recent decades. There is a need to use effective strategies for overcoming crop losses due to these abiotic stresses. Fertilizer-based approaches are readily available and can be managed in all farming communities. This research revealed the effects of sulfur-coated urea (SCU, 130 kg ha⁻¹, release time of 120 days) on wheat crops under heat, salt, waterlogging, and combined-stress climatic conditions. The research was done using a completely randomized design with three replicates. The results revealed that SCU at a rate of 130 kg of N ha⁻¹ showed a significantly (p ≤ 0.05) high SPAD value (55) in the case of waterlogging stress, while it was the lowest (31) in the case of heat stress; the control had a SPAD value of 58. Stress application significantly (p ≤ 0.05) reduced the leaf area and was the highest in control (1898 cm²), followed by salt stress (1509 cm²), waterlogging (1478 cm²), and heat stress (1298 cm²). A significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lowest crop yield was observed in the case of heat stress (3623.47 kg ha⁻¹) among all stresses, while it was 10,270 kg ha⁻¹ in control and was reduced up to 35% after the application of heat stress. Among all stresses, the salt stress showed the highest crop yield of 5473.16 kg ha⁻¹. A significant correlation was observed among growth rate, spike length, yield, and physiological constraints with N content in the soil. The SCU fertilizer was the least effective against heat stress but could tolerate salt stress in wheat plants. The findings suggested the feasibility of adding SCU as an alternative to normal urea to alleviate salt stresses and improve wheat crop growth and yield traits. For heat stress tolerance, the applicability of SCU with a longer release period of ~180 days is recommended as a future prospect for study.

Water scarcity and water contamination due to the extensive use of organic compounds in industries trigger us to adopt modern techniques for wastewater treatment. In this research, we developed a new dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system which was evaluated for the degradation of nitrobenzene in water under different experimental arrangements. DBD produces an enormous amount of active species like O₃, ^•O, O₂⁺ and O₂⁻ and ^•OH to degrade the pollutants. In this study, NB (Nitrobenzene) was treated from wastewater by changing the gas flow rate, adopting different carrier gas, by adding inhibitors and promoters and the effect of applied voltage on the production of active species to check the effectiveness of the DBD system. The DBD system was evaluated based on input power, degradation efficiency and energy yield compared with other advanced oxidation processes. The energy yield of the DBD system was 1.253 mg/kWh for the degradation of 20 mg/L of NB to 75% in 60 min with the discharge power of 0.538 W, which displays better results in comparison with the other AOPs regarding energy yield and the degradation efficiency of the pollutant. The results illustrate the significance of the system and further suggest its application to industrial-scale treatment.