An artificial wetland, the solution for a school

Imagine that your school is in a remote area of Chile and due to the weather you’re facing a severe water crisis. This situation has made many schools close and many schoolchildren have had to leave school.

A school in La Ligua (Valparaiso) consumes almost 6000 litres of water in a day. How can the problem of lack of water be solved?

A project has been developed to treat the school’s grey water, i.e. water with soap that is used in the toilets, showers and kitchens. With this system, the water is recovered and sent to an artificial wetland that works with plants.

Microorganisms that grow in the roots of the plants feed on the organic compounds in the grey water, which is then filtered through gravel. Finally, the water is chlorinated to make it suitable for irrigation.

This simple initiative recovers up to 3000 litres of the 6000 that the school uses every day!