Whenever I go to class, I pass a small creek in our University grounds which has caught my attention. It caught my interest because there is a foul odor that I can smell whenever I pass by, and from time-to-time I see some suspended solid particles floating on the surface of the water.  I don?t really know exactly where the creek originates, but I know that it passes through our University.

I have been thinking that this foul smell might be due to domestic wastes that is channelled to the creek or even thrown directly into the creek in upstream areas where there might be legal or illegal housing. I am interested in this now because I have been exposed to the technology of Floating Green Filters through our Foundation.

What is Floating Green Filter?  It is a simple, low-cost, low-tech, low-maintenance and highly effective natural filtration system.  We construct floating platforms using bamboo and plant native species on it. We would put this right into the water and in about 4-6 months, the root system of the plants will be absorbing the pollutants from the lake and introducing good stuff that will together help to remove the bad odors.

So, on the day before Earth Day, I communicated with one of our professors in the Environmental Science Department of our University and asked if this is a project we can do in that creek.  She was interested and said that she will teach me how to do the water quality testing in the creek so we can have a baseline before we do the Floating Green Filter now that we are on summer vacation. If this project works, we can have pleasant walks beside the creek in the future months.