With current increasing trends in population growth and socio-economic development, the quality and quantity of water is gaining widespread attention worldwide. This increasing concern about water quality and quantity necessitates the interventions in water systems to meet the objective of sustainable water supply and prevent potential environmental deterioration. Zacharias et al. (2005) emphasized that sustainable water management which incorporates both socio-economic and environmental perspectives is a difficult but essential task in order to prevent potential environmental deterioration.
In recent years the large amounts of polluted water are discharged into rivers and causing serious future uncertainty in the water quality. However, method that integrates water quantity and quality in water resource allocation has the potential to add value to decision makers who face these challenges (Zhang et al., 2010). Various conventional methods are in practice for purification of water and removing the pollutant contaminants, but most of them are costly and non-ecofriendly (Dhote and Dixit, 2008). One of the promising ways for improving water quality of rivers and lakes, is the effective microorganism (EM) technology which has been much appreciated comparative to other conventional methods because of its ecofriendly nature, and requires less inputs, cost and capital.
The concept of EM was developed by Professor Dr. Teruo Higa, University of Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan in 1980. There are three types of microorganisms which are categorized into decomposing or degenerative, opportunistic or neutral and constructive or regenerative. EM belongs to the regenerative category whereby they can prevent decomposition in any type of substances and thus maintain the health of both living organisms and the environment (PSDC, 2009).
The basic purpose of EM is the restoration of healthy ecosystem in both soil and water by using mixed cultures of beneficial and naturally-occurring...