Bayawan City, Oriental Negros – Used often to make brooms, the lowly tambo (scientific name Phragmites karka) that inhabit the Philippine riverbanks can now be used also to clean wastewater.

Because of this reed and other native plants, fisher folk in a resettlement village in this city won’t have to deal with polluted ground water due to untreated sewage.

Using a German technology developed 40 years ago that relies on natural cleansing processes in the soil and roots of certain plants and reeds, the country’s first LGU-constructed and managed wetlands was inaugurated last Sept. 4 and will sanitize domestic wastewater from 750 households of the Gawad Kalinga housing project.

Andreas Kanzler, Country Director of the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) described the wetlands as a perfect solution to treat the sewage of a small? community since it cost effective, easy to maintain and very efficient in the cleaning process.

”The technology of constructed wetlands is successful and reliably applied in several countries in Asia. With this solution, we can contribute significantly to the very serious situation of contamination of drinking water resources by waste water in many regions of the country,” Kanzler said.

With around 20 Filipinos dying everyday from diseases caused by untreated sewage and contaminated water, Kanzler stressed the need for more sanitation programs using affordable technology.

“Centralized treatment systems with kilometers and kilometers of collecting sewer pipes become so expensive, that they are not affordable in developing countries, especially not outside the mega cities. Affordable cost, low maintenance and simple technology solutions are needed,” he said.

He also hailed the project as a model of cooperation between the GTZ and its national partner, the Department of Interior and Local Governments, the Academe and the Bayawan City Government and lauded the initiative of City Mayor German Sara��o conceptualize and finance the project.

“It was always a project of the city of Bayawan, which GTZ supported with long term and short-term expertise from Germany to ensure a state of the art construction and to avoid mistakes,” he added.

Budgeting P10 million from local funds to build the 2.800 sq. m. wetland facility, Mayor Sara��nveiled plans to build three more artificial wetlands to service the city’s residential and commercial districts.

He called the project a gift to fisher folk since the P10 monthly payments of each household for the use of the wetlands is just enough for the maintenance of the facility. As an added economic benefit, the treated water from the wetlands can also be used for agriculture, construction work and firefighting.

“We just hope that this will be replicated in other LGUs so that we can comply with the Clean Water Act and address the sanitation problem in urban areas,” the Mayor said.

This was echoed by DILG Assistant Secretary Austere Panadero who appreciated the island of Negros for pursuing innovative projects in sanitation.

Bayawan is also home to dehydration toilets which do not use water to flush human waste and instead separate feces and urine to be processed later as organic fertilizer.

If more LGUs adopt this sustainable sanitation solution, the local wetlands and its use of the tambo will chalk up another one for the books in the land where human hair is used to clear oil spills.