Constructed Wetland Facility for Wastewater Treatment
The progress of mankind includes solutions in which nature can help making up for the damages that it has suffered. The facility built in Pineta Park aims at exploiting this opportunity, offering the possibility to personally discover this reality through a unique experience carried out in one of the few constructed wetland facilities for wastewater treatment.
Water purification is a natural process taking place in wetlands, where, thanks to animal and vegetable organisms, a series of purification mechanisms take place through physical, chemical, and biological processes. The wastewater treatment facility in the town Pianbosco exploits this concept and mainly treats the urban sewage effluents coming from the eastern part of the town. Pineta Park and the Municipality of Venegono Inferiore, with the essential collaboration of Fondazione Cariplo, have dealt together with a serious problem of local pollution threatening the water resource.
The structure is formed by four basins planned in order to enable the spontaneous water flowing; the soil represents the vegetation support and plays a filtration role; the microfauna degrades the organic material transforming it into nourishing substances available for the vegetable species of the system. The vegetation, through the root apparatus, brings oxigen in depth, absorbs nourishing substances from the soil, and reduces the total quantity of the waters.
The didactic enhancement of the facilities gives the opportunity to enjoy the particular features of the structure: an outdoor didactic classroom, the accessibility to all basins and to the final drain, and a path giving an overview of the facilities are only some of the possibilities enabling the clever visit to the site.
The visit, led by qualified staff, is carried out on demand for school groups (thorugh related didactic projects) or during the events organized by the Park Authority.
