Clean water with flowers

On the surface of lakes with polluted water sources will be colorful and colorful flowers, while bringing a beautiful landscape to be able to clean the water source. That is the idea from the topic ' Water filter flower garden on Lake B52 ' was awarded the second prize in the Sony Green Inventory contest.

The group of students from Hanoi University of Science (VNU Hanoi) convinced the Judging Council based on the high applicability of the topic.

Ngoc Anh (3rd from left) and the members of the research team receive the Second Prize of the Green Development Contest (Photo: TP)

Lake B52 (Ngoc Ha Ward, Ba Dinh, Hanoi) is a relic lake with the tail of the B52 also rising from the bottom of the lake to mark the history of the Dien Bien Phu battle in the air in the past.

However, in recent years, the lake water has been seriously polluted due to domestic wastewater discharged, the garbage has been poured into the aircraft, the fish carcass floated around the lake, causing the relic landscape to be seriously degraded. Living nearby, day and day must smell enough unpleasant odors from the lake, especially on the hot summer days, Ngoc Anh - the last year student of the University of Natural Sciences always annoyed about a solution to handle the pollution problem for lake.

However, the difficulty is how to treat lake water but also to maintain natural landscape. Once upon a time, Ngoc Anh read an article about how to grow aquatic plants capable of filtering contaminated water in China by Professor Nguyen Lan Dung, the idea of ​​a solution for Lake B52 was formed.

The topic was supported by a group of classmates forming a research group including: Ngoc Anh, My Hanh, Duc Hieu, Bach Yen, Minh Ngo, Dinh Van Huy.

Filter the water with . flowers

During the last summer days, people in the area of ​​Lake B52 often saw a group of young people reviewing and recording. Next, the research team had to take the lake water to do experiments and analyze pollution criteria.

Ngoc Anh's house became a research site for the whole group. The group buys chemicals, thanks to all the familiar places to do experiments, from the lab at the school to the Institute of Fisheries in Bac Ninh. The results show that lake water is seriously polluted.

Flower rafts experimenting on West Lake (Hanoi) - (Photo: TP)

After that is the stage to buy experimental flowers; make plastic bottles for planting flowers and drop into foam containers containing contaminated lake water to test the adaptability of the plants. The most problematic issue that members are busy debating to forget about eating is about how to put waste plastic bottles together into floats floating on the water.

After failing to use glue to mount, the group uses screws but this way causes rust. The optimal option is to link with plastic wire. Team leader Ngoc Anh said: This project is superior to similar models in China. Flower rafts made of scraps plastic bottles have made use of the recycling ability in color so they have a higher aesthetics than white foam rafts that easily adhere to deposits.

Distilled from dozens of Ngoc Ha flower varieties, 3 types of plants are trumpet, aqua, seaweed are selected by the research team because of their high survival ability, can be planted hydroponic. In order to transfer plants from the soil environment to the water environment, the whole group takes a lot of effort to take care of the plant through many stages.

Helping plants adapt in new environments, plants must be grown in lake water through many dilutions. When the rafts are still green in the lake water, visually see the clear water. Analysis showed that the domestic pollutant indicators have decreased markedly. Bring flowers and flowers to experiment on West Lake, young faces brighten up when trees live healthy in conditions of heavily polluted lake water.

The group's plan is to continue to study the topic to find better solutions, find more beautiful and richer flowers. Young researchers expect that when they graduate, they will have the opportunity to put the application into practice so that the flowers will not only bloom on B52 lake but also be vibrant in polluted lakes.

Hong Anh