Using Water Bamboo and Chayote Leaves to Treat Livestock Wastewater

“Using Water Bamboo and Water Spinach to Treat Wastewater in Animal Husbandry” is the second prize-winning project in the national competition: “Improving Water Use and Protection” in its third edition – 2006. The author of this project is Lê Thế Trung, a student in class 11 M1 at Mỹ Hương High School, Mỹ Tú, Sóc Trăng.

Inspiration from… Pig Farm Wastewater

In his presentation before the judging panel, Lê Thế Trung was very convincing with a dignified and confident demeanor: “I believe that my project will maximize cost savings for treating wastewater from animal farms and reduce environmental pollution…”.

The idea of using Water Bamboo and Water Spinach for wastewater treatment was discovered by Trung while he was fishing one afternoon. While casting his line, he noticed that the drainage from his neighbor’s pig farm discharged into the canal with little foul odor, and the water in that section of the canal was not murky like the adjacent section. Curious about this, Trung began to investigate further. He observed that at different times, the environment from that drainage had less odor compared to the wastewater from other pig farms.

Based on his intuition, Trung believed that the clumps of Water Bamboo and Water Spinach growing in the drainage made the wastewater from the pig farms cleaner when discharged into the environment.

To prove his hypothesis, Trung uprooted some clumps of Water Bamboo and Water Spinach and planted them in the drainage from the neighboring pig farm. After some time, as these plants grew lush, the water also had less odor than before.

Then, Trung encouraged his neighbors to plant Water Spinach and Water Bamboo along the wastewater channel from their pig farms. With advantages such as wastewater from animal husbandry helping the Water Spinach and Water Bamboo grow faster, residents would also gain economic benefits: Water Spinach is food for pigs, while Water Bamboo can be used for mats, tying cakes, and bundling rice… Some households followed his advice, yielding initial results in both economic benefits and environmental pollution reduction.

An Outstanding Project

When the school informed him about the competition on “Improving Water Use and Protection” in its third edition – 2006, Lê Thế Trung decided to participate with his idea. To ensure scientific validity, Trung conducted another experiment by taking 1 liter of wastewater from a pig farm and placing it into four plastic bottles. He then placed one clump of Water Bamboo, one clump of Water Spinach, and one clump of Brahmi grass in each bottle, leaving one bottle without any plants, and stored all four bottles in a cool place.

Seven days later, Trung took the water from the four bottles out for testing. Using experimental equipment at school, he measured and confirmed the improvement in water pollution as it flowed through the Water Bamboo and Water Spinach. (See table)

Thinking about expanding the industrial wastewater treatment model, Trung developed his idea further with the solution: Before discharging into the environment, wastewater is concentrated in a collection tank (which will be periodically emptied of sludge), flowing through a channel planted with Water Cabbage and Vietnamese Coriander, then continuing to a channel planted with Water Bamboo and Water Spinach before being released into the river…

With its practical benefits as well as ease of treatment and implementation, Trung’s project “Using Water Bamboo and Water Spinach to Treat Wastewater in Animal Husbandry” was one of four projects that surpassed 28 entries at the Soc Trang Department of Science and Technology, progressing to the national finals.

At the final presentation round on June 4, 2006, the project received high praise from the judging panel.

Meeting with us after the competition, still feeling nervous, Trung shared: “I was very surprised and happy. Now, I just hope the project can be widely disseminated to improve water quality, especially in rural areas, because it benefits both the environment and the economy…”.

In conversation with Trung’s teacher, we learned that due to his family’s financial difficulties, Trung had to borrow all the textbooks from school to study. However, for 11 consecutive years, Trung has amazed many with his excellent academic achievements. Now, in the collection of this student who “walked to school for 11 years” because he did not have a bicycle, there is another accolade: the second prize in the national competition “Improving Water Use and Protection”. Trung said he would continue to participate in the competition next year and promised to meet us again at that time.