A floating shield on the river will remind humanity of the environmental problem and help clean the water

In East Asia, volunteers who care about the environment have taken a creative approach to remind people of the importance of protecting nature. For this purpose, a unique floating billboard with a grass-lined inscription was created, which is both a way to clean polluted water bodies and an example of memorable social advertising.

In the Philippine capital of Manila, the Pasig River has a fairly high level of pollution. After the Great Patriotic War, a significant increase in population, the construction of new enterprises, which often dumped industrial waste directly into the river, led to the fact that the ecology of the river began to rapidly deteriorate. Since the 80s of the last century, the authorities have banned fishing in the river, and in recent decades the Pasig River has been officially recognized as biologically dead.

But recently, people who are not indifferent to this problem decided to revive the river. At the end of winter this year, on the Pasig River in part of the city, thanks to the joint efforts of several volunteers who are not indifferent to the environment, designers, advertising agencies, a floating billboard in the form of an advertisement (a barge with a special type of grass) was created.

The developers of social advertising chose a special type of grass – vetiver, a perennial plant of the cereal family. Ecologists place great hopes on this plant, in addition, vetiver is the main component of the project.

The plant grows quite tall – a meter and a half in height, but the main thing in this plant is its roots, as they form a carpet-like turf and go to a depth of more than two meters. It is due to this that vetiver is called the "soil nail", since the plant's roots reliably protect the soil from destruction and erosion during the rainy season.

In addition, the plant repels insects well, including termites, which can easily gnaw their way through metal. Vetiver contains a compound that insects cannot stand – nootkatone. The aromatic root of the plant was used for medicinal purposes in ancient times. The plant has a calming and antidepressant effect. Currently, scientists are unable to create an analogue, since the plant has a rather complex chemical composition.

But the main advantage of vetiver root is its ability to clean large amounts of water from toxic compounds. Vetiver is often used as a wastewater purifier and landfill stabiliser due to the fact that the grain can withstand large doses of heavy metals and nitrates. The developers of the unique device decided that it is with vetiver that the level of pollution in the river can be reduced.

The creation of such a shield turned out to be not at all difficult, since vetiver is grown in India, China, Reunion, Brazil, Japan, Haiti, in addition, the plant does not require special care, can grow in sand, clay, swamps and even in deserts.

The developers of the shield made a pallet out of wood, in which vetiver also took root perfectly. As noted by ecologists, the floating 27-meter "garden" is capable of cleaning up to eight thousand waters daily (depending on the strength of the current).

But in addition to cleaning the river, the billboard is intended to remind humanity that it is forbidden to pollute rivers and dump industrial and household waste into them. For these purposes, the design group laid out the inscription “Clean River Soon” from plant blocks.

Now environmentalists are planning to carry out similar projects in a number of other countries.

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