Green remediation of River Water Contaminants: A Lab-Scale Wetland Approach for Metal and Excess Nutrient Removal

River basins have been extensively altered by unsustainable surge inagriculture, industrialization and urbanization. Green remediation, particularly phytoremediation, is an eco-friendly and efficient approach that utilizes plants and their associated microbes to remove, detoxify, or immobilize toxins from soil, water, or air, thereby enhancing water quality by addressing contaminants such as metals and nutrients. A lab-scale wetland study was carried out to determine the efficacy of a specific plant species for phytoremediation. This study analyzed pollutant parameters, including metals (As, Al, Ca, Cd, Co, Cu,Fe, Pb, Mg, Hg, Ni, Na) and nutrients like nitrogen (nitrates and ammoniacalnitrogen) and phosphorus (total phosphorus and available phosphorus). CannaIndica, an aquatic macrophyte, was used for its nutrient and metal removal capabilities. A wetland simulator, fabricated from acrylic sheets (length: ~1m,height: ~0.75m, width: ~0.50m), was used to grow Canna Indicaplants. Thewetland simulator was filled with a  150 L volume (40% of reactor volume) ofgrowing medium (soil, sand, gravel), arranged in a block design. A water samplefrom Ratanpuri in the Hindon River, known for its high pollution levels in northern India, was used for the wetland study, which was analyzed for metalsand nutrients before, during, and after the experiments. The experiments were performed for 20 days (three runs), depending upon their treatment efficiency.This study's findings demonstrated that metals' removal efficiency is 50-55 percent (absorbed by plants). Similarly, the efficacy of nutrient removal,specifically nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, using phytoremediation is evaluated in this study, with removal rates ranging from 60-74 percent. The findings highlight phytoremediation's performance as a highly sustainabletechnology for remediating contaminated water bodies or soil structures. As urbanization and industrialization accelerate, rising river contamination levels have increased the lateral flow of pollutants from riverbanks into groundwater. So, implementing field-scale green remediation strategies using Canna Indica plants along riverbanks mitigates contaminant movement, ensuring soil and water quality restoration amidst rising anthropogenic demands.