With clayey soil (14 kilograms), rice powder (from 700 to 1,000 grams) plus five liters of microorganisms called effective and provided by the private company, one hundred spheres the size of a tennis ball are created (adequate size to fit into the egg space in a tray). After fermentation inside a box for fifteen days, without exposure to the sun or wind, the bodies of water where they are placed are ready to be decontaminated from wastewater.
Each ball of mud is thrown away to remedy a square meter of river or estuary, indicates the Embioecsa company that produces the microorganisms.
The technique will be applied from 2:00 p.m. on November 19 in the Estero Salado branch located between the Urdenor I and Alborada sixth stage citadels, in the north of Guayaquil.
About 150 people helped in the elaboration and more than five thousand balls are reported that will be placed in the waters to remedy some five thousand square meters of the estuary. The activity has the respective permit from the Municipality of Guayaquil.
Wilson Quinde, the biologist who dreams of rescuing the Salado estuary through bacteria
Effective Microorganisms or EM Technology is a technique developed by Teruo Higa, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan. Its use includes agricultural and livestock production, as well as environmental remediation to decontaminate water and soil. “Microorganisms that have not been genetically modified whose main function is to restore biological functions to the ecosystem are used.”, says Fabián Castillo Pino, general manager of Embioecsa, representative in Ecuador of the Japanese firm EMRO.
Your application in rivers, lakes, polluted estuaries allows its bioremediation, mainly by reducing contamination caused by inadequate disposal of organic matter and pathogenic microorganisms (such as fecal coliforms). “In this way, bad odors are reduced and the biological conditions for the return of aquatic life are improved,” he adds.
It is bioremediation because microorganisms (living beings) are used to solve a contamination problem. “It is a Japanese technology that since 1980 promotes the use of beneficial microorganisms in agriculture, livestock, the environment and other applications, producing without contaminating.”
Are clay spheres go to the bottom of the estuary or river and begin to act on the organic matter that contaminates the water, with which bioremediation is achieved. “It is given in two parameters. The first is to control odors and the second is that this organic matter will no longer need as much oxygen that is in the water for its decomposition, so it is available for the fish and thus the return of the aquatic population that existed naturally occurs,” he says. Castle.
One of the main contaminants of the Salado estuary is organic matter (wastewater, industrial and domestic discharges and sludge that emit pestilential odors due to its state of decomposition), which is what the mud balls help to remedy, so Other types of waste that also contaminate this body of water, such as heavy metals, plastics or debris that are also thrown, are not included. To control these and reduce their impact, other management measures are required, says the specialist.
How feasible is it to do? Castillo replies that the inclusion of the community in the solution, since it facilitates the creation of the clay balls. One of the keys is the support of the citizens in the elaboration of what is used in the remediation. In the case of the citadels in the north of Guayaquil, workshops were held in which the inhabitants collaborated with the clayey soil, the rice powder and in the formation of the spheres.
“Clay soil and rice dust are cheap inputs and we provide the microorganisms free of charge.”, affirms Castillo.
The activity of throwing the mud balls has to be constant since the deterioration is permanent, at least once a month, he indicates, depending on the level of contamination.
Nail 600 hectares of the aquatic surface of the Salado estuary is integrated into the urban part of Guayaquil, Therefore, it directly receives the impact of contamination due to the mismanagement of wastewater and waste.
There are about ten branches that cross Urdesa, Mapasingue, Isla Trinitaria, suburb and Kennedy. “That is the universe to deal with because they receive the downloads. The highest priority would be two points. The most internal branches, such as in the Urdesa area where the estuary becomes narrower and the renewal of water by tidal flow is more limited and there is a greater accumulation of organic matter. The second point is the places where, due to specific social and economic conditions, its citizens tend to throw their garbage into the estuary, also because the collector does not arrive”.
Clemencia Miranda de Manrique, vice president of the Sor Dominga Bocca Foundation, a house that shelters minors in vulnerable situations, indicates that 16 of them participated in the production of 1,006 spheres.
“The idea is that the girls develop environmental awareness through this process of making the little balls after the training they received. They are aware of what these spheres do and are ready to replicate at another point that needs this remediation”.
In the act of launching the clay balls in Urdenor I, a children’s story that includes the environmental concept and message will be delivered to the girls of the foundation, and to the minors who live in the sector.
The story is by the author Margarita Barriga Pino. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
