Mexico City uses solar power to cleanse polluted waters

MEXICAN scientists have developed a unique “nanobubble” system using solar energy to improve water quality in the canals of Mexico City’s Xochimilco ecological zone, a popular tourist attraction.

Officials in Mexico City have been focused on cleaning up the long-polluted waters of Xochimilco, a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of the few areas of the capital that has canal networks dating back to Aztec times.

A team of researchers from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav) has developed a method using solar energy to activate a pump that sends cleansing “nanobubbles” into the water.

The bubbles help oxygenate the water, which eliminates harmful pollut- ants and reduces greenhouse gas emissions which, in turn, leads to healthier flora and fauna, according to Refugio Rodriguez Vazquez, of Cinvestav.

“We’ve seen, in the places that we have bubbled, a good proliferation of the Montezuma frog,” Mr Vazquez said, referring to one of Mexico’s native amphibian species.

Xochimilco is known for chinampas: floating beds of farm produce first cultivated by the Aztecs in the 14th century to feed the population. The “nanobubble” system enables farmers “to work on their chinampas with cleaner conditions”, Mr Vazquez said.

It could also potentially be replicated in other waterways in the city, where water quality is considered poor and supplies are at the mercy of droughts.