where the cost of remediation is often too steep to afford.
However, the country has a rich diversity of aquatic macrophytes
with potential to hyperaccumulate many heavy
metals and can be used as an alternative way of remediating
aquatic metal burden (Rai 2008). Phytoremediation is
a sustainable, cost effective, innovative technology that
uses plant systems for treatment of contaminants (PilonSmits
and Freeman 2006). Of the many heavy metals that
are present in water bodies, cadmium (Cd) is considered to
be highly toxic to most organisms and can contaminate the
food chain (He et al. 2005).