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On October 21, at the Civil Engineering Final Project Chair, engineers German and Dino Raffo shared their experience abroad and their knowledge about sustainable solutions for wastewater treatment. 💧🌱
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Solution for water pollution in
San Roque Lake, Códoba, Argentina
Solución a la contaminación del Lago San Roque, Córdoba, Argentina
The delicate situation of the San Roque Lake is well known, and its degradation has had a long-standing impact, worsening year by year.
The lake is currently in a eutrophic state. This means that there is an excess of inorganic nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus. These excess nutrients, caused by human activities, generate the proliferation of bacteria called cyanobacteria. These bacteria are having a worrying impact, as they cannot be eliminated in the drinking water treatment plants that supply drinking water to 70% of the city of Córdoba. In addition, they have the capacity to produce microcystin, a hepatoxin with the capacity to cause gastrointestinal disorders in the short and long term. This leads to a public sanitary problem.
San Roque Lake Water Intake | March 2022
So then, what can we do to solve this problem?
Currently, there are many people and independent organizations that are focusing on this problem, trying to contribute their studies and knowledge to reach a solution. Examples of this are, among many others, the CYANO and MATTEO projects of the National University of Córdoba (UNC).
For our part, we are conducting studies to eliminate cyanobacteria from these waters in the hydraulics laboratory of the UNC using efficient EM microorganisms, a Japanese biotechnology that we have been working on for the last 5 years, with positive results in this type of regeneration of water resources around the world. Such is the case of the Xalapa dam lakes in Mexico.
Xalapa, Mexico | Before & After
In addition, this situation is reaching a political state level, where a court decision was recently reached. This ruling urges the province to implement a sanitation plan for Lake San Roque, in order to modify the situation of contamination of these waters. This ruling sets a deadline of 60 working days for its presentation, which will be fulfilled at the beginning of July of this year 2023. It demands a redesign of the program of works that has been carried out for years in the San Roque basin and to start working on its implementation in a “coordinated” way since July.
The solution to this situation goes beyond what a single state, municipal or personal entity can apply on its own. It involves and encompasses many daily situations in many corners of the basin that are leading to the current situation. So we must take awareness and action from several points of view.
San Roque Lake Basin Google Maps
So, how could we solve it?
To solve this problem, we believe that a good way to begin would be to attack as many aspects of the basin as possible in parallel, starting with all the opportunities that present themselves.
On the one hand, it is important to reach a solution to regenerate the already polluted waters. And, on the other hand, it is essential to reduce, and if possible eliminate, the emitters of polluting effluents in the basin, which are the cause of this problem.
We can work to regenerate the waters of the lake, but if we continue to pollute the waters of the basin, it does not make much sense.
The way to reduce this impact, then, is to treat the wastewater from the watershed that is reaching the lake. This can be done in several ways, attacking the emitters of the different zones in a particular way.
In order to treat the wastewater that is reaching the lake, it is necessary to make a good study to understand exactly what are the main emitters and where they are located.
These emitters are all properties and municipalities that are using water and are incorrectly returning it back to the natural cycle. An example of this are the treatment plants that treat the water collected by the municipalities’ sewage systems. So are properties that are outside the sewage system and are not treating wastewater correctly. Among other private industrial entities that use water in their production processes and do not have a correct treatment system.
In the case of municipal sewage treatment plants, we are faced with a problem at the state level, since these types of organizations are responsible for supplying each municipality with drinking water, sanitary facilities and wastewater treatment. Therefore, it is impossible for those in charge of each municipality to solve the problem from an infrastructural point of view.
Many of the systems currently in use are difficult to sustain economically in terms of the maintenance they require, so their purification capacities are being highly affected. As a result, a large amount of water continues flowing into these plants and into the lake.
Rio San Antonio Centenary Bridge | March 2022
What options do municipalities have?
On the side of the properties that are not connected to these sewage systems, it can be solved at the municipal level independently. Through the use of Territorial Regulation Ordinances, which require for the approval of construction plans, a resolution to wastewater. An example of this is Ordinance 130/22 of Territorial Regulation that has just been approved in the municipality of Colón, Entre Ríos.
Another example of this is the case of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico, where a regulation requiring an adequate effluent treatment system prior to the approval of building permits is being finalized, also promoted by THE WAVE in this locality.
This type of ordinance comes together with a technical manual, which has general and detailed information on treatment systems, with training courses aimed at professionals, builders and the general public.
We talk about this type of ordinance in depth in the following article,
Wastewater Treatment Ordinance to be applied in a Municipality
From the Governor’s Office of Córdoba, the ideal solution would be:
Integral projection of works for the collection, treatment and productive use of effluents for agricultural irrigation, biomass production and/or forestry. Projects that can be financed by international organizations such as the IDB and CAF. Thus transforming a problem of water pollution and obtaining financing for treatment works into a productive entity, with interesting investment returns, which facilitate its financing.
Using soft technologies, according to the economic context, and of easy maintenance.
Transforming a pollution and public health problem into an economic opportunity and social benefit. Providing jobs directly and indirectly with the productive result, such as timber.
The increase of green spaces, productive forestry forests with native forest park curtains, as consequent benefits of the project.
Overview of the proposed solution
- Study of the problem, detecting the main causes of the problem.
- Requirements of correct treatment of sanitary water to state entities.
- Development of Territorial Ordinances at each municipal level requiring proper wastewater treatment.
- Integral projection of solutions.
- Restoration of the lake with studied technologies.
Who are we?
We are THE WAVE ORG L.L.C., an environmental organization with the objective of scaling and spreading the word about a way to clean up the waters. Which is the most efficient, economical and intuitive way. A technique applied by our family for more than 15 years, not only at domestic scale, but also at urban and industrial scales.
Today only 4% of the wastewater is treated correctly, according to the provisions of Decree 847 of the Province of Cordoba (“Regulation of Standards and Rules on Discharges for the Preservation of Water Resources in the Province of Cordoba”).
Our objective is to treat waters correctly before being returned to its natural cycle.
That we stop returning them contaminated, thus impacting the cycle as a whole.
This is a sanitation problem, on a social scale. That is why we focus on making people aware of the problem, which involves all of us from our main element, water.
Meet our team
We would like to deeply thanks the National Univesity of Córdoba for making this possible. Also to you for coming this far, raising awareness of the problem that involves us all from our main element, Water.
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Domestic wastewater teatment
The UNC Civil Engineer, Dino Raffo, presents his Thesis of Laurea Magistrale in Ingegneria Edile with courses at the School of Architecture, Castello del Valentino, at the Politecnico di Torino, in Italy.
Dino shares in his final thesis a complete analysis of the solutions for domestic wastewater treatment.
Shared here in Italian, English and Spanish.
Wastewater Treatment Ordinance to be applied in a Municipality
Wastewater Treatment Ordinance to be applied in a Municipality A solution for municipalities with low infrastructure budgets In small towns, which are facing a great growth in real estate and development, and which