Posted On 21 Jul 2017
A new experience adds to the fight to rescue the estuary. This time, a Guayaquil company contracted by the Ministry of the Environment (MAE), planted a stretch of the Palanqueado estuary, with floating islands.
These are 40 panels in which up to 90 plants of two different species have been planted in each one. This bioremediation process seeks to improve, in the next three or six months, the quality of the waters of this section.
“This is a pilot project,” says Jenny Astudillo Velasco, spokeswoman for PSI Compañía Limitada, based in Guayaquil, and local representative of Floating Island International, the company that designed this system that has been tested in other parts of the globe. It is the first time a project like this applied for the recovery of a body of water in the country.
“We expect that in about three or six months there will be 80% removal of contaminants from this stretch of the estuary,” says Astudillo, who manages a multidisciplinary team of 10 people.
A study conducted in 2010 by the Universidad Espíritu Santo and the Municipality determined that 60% of El Salado is filled with sludge and domestic and industrial waste.
Under the surface of the panels, the restorative process is executed: the roots will bioaccumulate heavy metals and absorb excess nutrients. Every 48 hours the waters adjacent to the sites where the panels are anchored are monitored for further laboratory evaluation. (I)