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Wastewater Gardens Systems in Yucatan, Mexico; Northwest Australia; Northern Algeria and Southern Iraq

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Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment in Hot and Arid Climates

Part of the book series: Wetlands: Ecology, Conservation and Management ((WECM,volume 7))

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Abstract

Wastewater Gardens (WWG) systems are complete wastewater treatment plants (STP or WTP) using high biodiversity subsurface flow constructed wetlands (CW). Our work began in Biosphere 2, where CW completed water cycles, returned nutrients to fertile farm soil, produced fodder and habitat. Since, the WWG approach has been applied in 15 countries including Mexico, Australia, Algeria and Iraq, hot and arid areas with limited freshwater resources. These systems offer far less expensive, yet reliable, productive and longer-lasting treatment plants than so-called conventional centralized treatment plants, often disabled by challenging climates or extreme weather events and completely dependent on external power sources such as electricity. Over 30 WWG systems along the limestone Mexican Yucatan coast protect coral reefs from sewage pollution. In the remote northwest Australian Kimberley region, a series of WWGs improved sewage treatment, community hygiene and landscape beauty in indigenous communities. The WWG team implemented Algeria’s first CW system in Tamacine, a pilot that served as a basis for further large-scale systems countrywide. “Eden in Iraq” Wastewater Gardens Project is in pre-implementation phase to provide the first effective sewage treatment for Marsh Arab towns, preventing contamination and helping in the restoration of these ancient and historic marshes. WWGs provide landscape beauty without additional water use, perform well in extreme climatic conditions and are valued by the local communities for their simplicity, beauty and non-reliance on costly energy-intensive technologies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Personal communication with Vetiver z. specialists Paul Truong, Richard Grimshaw and Criss Juliard, Nov. 2007.

  2. 2.

    For the wide range of Vetiver zizanoides applications, see http://www.vetiver.org/ and http://www.vetiver.org/g/archives_plant.htm

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecotechnics, US/UK, Santa Fe, NM, USA

    Mark Nelson, Florence Cattin & Davide Tocchetto

  2. Wastewater Gardens International, Santa Fe, NM, USA

    Mark Nelson, Florence Cattin & Davide Tocchetto

  3. INRAA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique d’Algérie), Oued Smar, Algeria

    Lamine Hafouda

Authors
  1. Mark Nelson
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  2. Florence Cattin
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  3. Davide Tocchetto
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  4. Lamine Hafouda
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Nelson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Environmental Engineering and Management, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece

    Alexandros Stefanakis

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Nelson, M., Cattin, F., Tocchetto, D., Hafouda, L. (2022). Wastewater Gardens Systems in Yucatan, Mexico; Northwest Australia; Northern Algeria and Southern Iraq. In: Stefanakis, A. (eds) Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment in Hot and Arid Climates. Wetlands: Ecology, Conservation and Management, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-03600-2_20

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