Chennai: Water hyacinth (Agayathmarai), always cursed by environmentalists for consuming water resources heavily, has been found to be very useful in converting industry effluents into a useful water resource for irrigation, a team of students proved in a science exhibition.
A team of engineering students from M.A.M College, Trichy, proved that water hyacinth had a significant role in filtering heavy metals and other impurities in water. The team won first prize at an exhibition ‘Innowah’, that was held at IIT Madras on Tuesday.
The team members, M Shabudeen and P Kiruthiga, final year civil engineering students, from the college, said, “There have been quite a number of allegations on growing technology for being unfair to nature, but we have come out with few technologies aiming to conserve natural resources.”
“The plant absorbs the metal impurities and retains it in the tissues. It aids in decomposition too. Since the plant consumes oxygen from water, it should not be allowed to grow in water bodies like pond and lake. Alternatively, oxygen for water living organisms can be supplemented by planting Vetiveria (vettiver), a traditional herb,” said R.Sunil Sundhar, a second-year civil engineering student.
“The water from the factory will be sent to alum coagulation, paddy straw filtration and charcoal and active charcoal for purification. Finally, it reaches an artificial wetland where water hyacinth is grown. The plant’s root removes heavy metals and other contaminations as it performs phytoremediation, phytoextraction, and phytostabilization.
“If reverse osmosis is done the same water could be used for drinking, but we may waste two-thirds of the water in the process which is not a good idea of conservation,” said N Venkatesan, a third-year civil engineering student.
