Pereira

Site: Metropolitan area of Centro Occidente, in Colombia, with >700,000 inhabitants.

The river basin pilot is located in the River Otun Water Treatment Works facilities in Pereira. The wastewater pilot is located in the facilities of the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP). UTP is an academic institution with more than 19.000 people including students and employees. Wastewater from the UTP is collected and treated in the existing wastewater treatment plant in Campus designed to treat 3 L/s of wastewater.

Situation: Colombia needs innovative and cost-effective urban wastewater treatment, because many municipalities do not have any. In addition, river basin restoration is crucial in Colombia, due to its ecological value and use as a main source of potable water. NICE contributes to improving water quality of rivers in Pereira, namely Otún River.

Solution:

The Urban Real Lab is installed in a 50 m² area available at the River Otun WTW. It consists of 12 tanks (1 m diameter), 6 of them with a sand bed of 70 cm high, and the other 6 with a height equivalent to 40 cm. Each block of 6 tanks consists of 2 types of plant species, typical of natural wetlands in the area, and uplanted tanks as control (4 planted wetlands and two unplanted). A stainless steel flow distribution box structure has been designed and built to divide the incoming flow (10 m³/day) and distribute it to the 12 tanks. Pilot materials will use available local material consisting of ½ inch crushed gravel.

Similar to the river basin pilot at Aarhus, the main design criteria is the Hydraulic loading rate (HLR) which is expected to gradually increase from 0.08 m/day up to 1 m/day with monthly increments. This will allow the treatment of up to 10 m³/day in one year of operation.