LAGOS – A Consultant Health physician, Dr Abdul-Hakeem Abiola, on Tuesday said wetlands were cost effective means of disposing of waste.
Abiola, who works with the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
• Cue in audio 1
“Now, because of the cost of maintaining a sewage treatment plant, what environmental engineers are now talking about is what is known as constructed wetland.
“A wetland is a body of water that can act as habitat for wildlife and can also treat waste water that is poured into it.
“So, when you now construct it, a swamp, marshes, all those are wetlands and they act as natural purifier of waste water.
“When you construct something to mimic a marsh, a swamp and you now use it to treat your sewage, that’s what you mean by constructed wetland.”
• Cue out audio
Abiola said that waste consisted of body wastes, bath water, food preparation wastes, laundry wastes, and other waste products of normal living classed as domestic or sanitary sewage.
He noted that if such waste was indiscriminately disposed of, it could be harmful to human life, wildlife and the environment.
• Cue in audio 2
“There are plants that are grown there, so those plants act as bio filters; they absorb the toxic materials that are in the sewage or in the waste water and the water that has not been treated that passed through the constructed wetlands is now discharged.
“So, the wetland is now another option that people are trying to look at because it is cost effective, it is less expensive to run than the conventional sewage treatment plant.”
• Cue out audio
Abiola said that the current means of disposing waste was through the use of costly chemicals at the sewage treatment plants.
“At a functioning sewage treatment plant, waste goes through many stages, to produce two things, the solid part of the sewage and the liquid part of the sewage.
“The solid part is known as sludge, while the liquid part is known as effluence,” he said. (NAN)
banker of the day - FREE banker tips from experts