Phytoremediation has been used for wastewater treatment worldwide for thirty years, achieving excellent results in terms of both efficiency and integration into the natural landscape. Located outside the Reserve, it allows for the treatment of excess water from Incasate.
These systems reproduce, in a more or less engineered manner, what happens naturally in natural wetlands: thanks to the combined action of bacteria and plants, and through complex chemical, physical, and biological reactions, the pollutants contained in the water are degraded and metabolized until they are suitable for discharge into bodies of water. All this occurs naturally, without the need for chemicals, without byproducts to dispose of, and without any energy consumption.
Phytoremediation techniques can be divided into submerged flow systems, where water never comes into contact with the atmosphere and flows through a filter medium of gravel and sand that supports the growth of emergent aquatic plants, and free-flow systems, which are more similar in structure to ponds and wetlands, where water flows surface-level and the aquatic plants—emergent, submerged, and floating—are more diverse, recreating a habitat with high biodiversity that, in addition to promoting purification processes, attracts numerous animal and bird species.