This is the amazing moment a contaminated lake in Peru was saved by a nano-bubbling system invented by Japanese-Peruvian scientist Marino Morikawa.
The system makes bubbles that are 10,000x smaller than the ones in a soda beverage. These nano-bubbles affix themselves to viruses and bacteria as they float to the surface.
Clay biological filters then hold the pollutants at the surface so that they can be decomposed by bacteria. Thanks to Morikawa, migratory birds are once again a common sight in the El Cascajo wetlands. What’s even better is that the solution utilized in this process is organic and even edible.
El Cascajo is located in Chancay district, north of Lima, encompassing an area of about 50 hectares (123 acres). Its journey to recovery started in 2010 after Morikawa used his own money to come up with the two inventions.
Morikawa was inspired by a call from his father. Both father and son used to go fishing in Elcascajo when Morikawa was a child, so when his dad said that it “was in very bad condition,” he was moved to act.
Morikawa has a degree in environmental science from Tsukuba University in Japan. Upon visiting the wetlands, he found a sewage dump surrounded by an illegal landfill where migratory birds were supposed to feed. Aquatic plants blanketed the filthy swamp.
The scientist wanted to decontaminate the area without resorting to chemicals so he invented the micro-nanobubbling system which is left in the water between four to eight hours.
He also designed clay-based biological filters to catch inorganic pollutants like minerals and heavy metals.
After only 15 days, the wetlands started to revive, an astounding recovery compared to the laboratory results that took six months.
“Nature does its job. All I do is give it a boost to speed up the process,” Morikawa said.
Roughly 60% of the wetlands housed migratory birds by 2013, particularly the Franklin gulls that use the wetlands as a stopover between their Canada to Patagonia route.
Morikawa went on to help revive 30 habitats around the world. He is now hoping to work on two ecosystems that are symbolic of Peru, especially Lake Titicaca.
Morikawa explains how nanobubbles work: “Think of soda bubbles. Everybody can see the bubbles rising to the surface. Now imagine a bubble ten-thousand times smaller and imperceptible to the human eye. Since it is so small, it is a lot slower and takes 5 to 8 hours to reach the surface.
“The micro-nano bubble has an electromagnetic field of positive and negative ions that works like a magnet. On the way to the surface of the water, it attracts viruses and bacteria, thus catching them like in a spider’s web.”
The “magnet” traps the viruses and bacteria and they die. Even if the bubbles reach the surface, they turn into gas and the ultraviolet radiation does the rest.
The second part of the system involves the biofilters. While biofilters are found in water treatment methods worldwide, they need to be adjusted according to the conditions of the local water. In Peru, Morikawa produced his own ceramic biofilters.
But best of all is the fact that all the materials Morikawa used are readily available in any hardware store. One of his principles is: “Never use an expensive resource in a poor area, while you can use the home material.”
Replaced!