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Clean
Water, Clean
Vegetables
May
13, 2005
A
new water treatment reservoir in Carapongo, Lima
aims to help improve human health, the natural
environment and household income.
The small water treatment reservoir of 185
cubic meters was inaugurated on Friday 13th
in the Eastern Zone of Lima as a pilot study to
determine the potential of the reservoir to reduce
contaminants in irrigation water, whilst providing a
location for raising fish. Urban Harvest and the
Pan-American Center for Sanitary Engineering
and Environmental Science (CEPIS)
working with a local farming family, Reymundo
Jaulis Palomino and his wife Norma,
have
built the small reservoir, which will be used to
irrigate about 2,000 squared meters of crops. The
study will also evaluate the nutritional value of
the treated water compared with polluted water from
the Rimac River.
This will be determined by comparing the
effect on vegetables irrigated with the treated and
untreated water.
The
Rimac River is polluted due to a range of reasons.
One of them is the disposal of untreated domestic
wastewater into the river, which could result in
health problems when the river water is used for the
irrigation of crops.
The hypothesis proposes that the treated
water will be cleaned of bacteria and parasites,
mainly developed from fecal matter, leaving the
water cleaned and oxygenated.
The ‘cleaning’ process is quite simple.
Water enters the reservoir and is left static for
about ten days, within this timeframe the bacteria
would not be able to survive and the parasites would
sink to the bottom and eventually die.
Water is then free from bacteria and
parasites and good for irrigating farm plots whilst
testing the effects of the treated and untreated
water on crops.
Clean water is not only good for the
environment but as Maurico Pardón, Director from
CEPIS, stated, “improving irrigation water will
diminish parasites and bacteria in the products you
take to the market, which will have an effect on the
consumer.”
Moreover,
fish were originally introduced to the reservoir to
compensate for the loss of agricultural land, but it
also helps to keep it clean of algae, circulate the
surface water, and provide Reymundo Jaulis Palomino and
his family with nutritional fish to either consume or sell.
The reservoir aids the improvement of income by
the selling of
vegetables or fish, whilst improving human health
and conserving the natural environment.
These aspects contribute in making the
reservoir appealing for other agriculturalists in
the area to replicate the scheme.
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