Private Institute for Climate Change Research, Guatemala. Dr. John Jacob, director of the Program of Coastal Watersheds of Texas, of the Texas A&M University, is currently in Guatemala and shared today with local authorities from the Ministry of Environment, Commonwealth of the South, municipalities, and Fundazucar, about his experiences managing rain runoff waters through wetlands.
The presentation was hosted in Escuintla, where Jacob shared his experience with manmade wetlands that are used to treat rain runoff water of the cities, to clean them before disposing them in a river or basin. As the studies carried out by Jacob, and for the specific case of Nitrogen, this can be reduced from 50% to up to 100% from the runoff waters.
Jacob highlighted that manmade wetlands are an option to treat residual waters in small and medium size cities, beside they have a touristic potential since wetlands attract birds, and birds attract birdwatchers.
Dr. Jacob’s visit finished today with a tour around the Sipacate Naranjo National Park and the protected wetlands. The event was organized by the ICC as part of the support that is provided to local governments in environmental management.
Watch the interview in Spanish in our YouTube Channel.
