September sees WWT’s Sally Mackenzie and Matt Simpson head off to Vientiane in Laos to pioneer an innovative way to address the city’s increasing pollution and flooding problems. Specially constructed wetlands, similar to those at WWT Wetland Centres, will be built to ease pressure on the overstretched natural resources of this major city. WWT hopes the project will demonstrate how well this approach works at all scales from villages to cities and can be adapted to work pretty much anywhere in the world.

That Luang Marsh, which is on the edge of Vientiane, has to treat all the city’s sewage and factory waste, protect the city from the floodwaters of the Mekong river and provide 40,000 local people with food and medicine. However, Vientiane is expanding. Building work is reducing the area of the marsh and the benefits it provides. At present, two canals take all the waste from the city and the surrounding industries straight into the ever decreasing marsh, leaving it polluted and ineffective.

WWT is working in partnership with WWF and local government. The project is funded by EU Asia PRO. Sally Mackenzie explains WWT’s involvement: “WWT was brought in by WWF-Laos and the local government to develop special wetland treatment systems to ease pressure on the marsh. This involves designing and building small areas of wetland to treat pollution from homes and industries. Easing pressure on That Luang Marsh allows it to keep providing flood protection and food as it has done for years. The joy of this project is taking a natural lo-tech approach to solving the problem, meaning we preserve this precious resource for the great wildlife as well as for the people of Vientiane.”

On this trip Sally will work with local people on final designs for small wetlands to treat effluent from the Beer Lao brewery, a paper mill and a gas producing factory, as well as two villages on the edge of the marsh. The team will design another two special wetlands to treat the waste canals leading out of the city. Construction work is scheduled for the end of October. Sally will also be helping with the ongoing monitoring of the marsh for water quality and wildlife.

The work won’t come a moment too soon. In August heavy rain bought the Mekon river to within 10cm of flooding Vientiane. The need for better waste treatment becomes more urgent as more and more of That Luang Marsh is developed to house Vientiane’s growing population.

As Sally explains: “The preservation of That Luang Marsh as a Wetland facility is incredibly important. Without it working properly, the people and industries of Vientiane would struggle to contend with issues like flooding and waste. It is vital that we not only preserve it, but make it work for the people of Vientiane. By the end of this project, we aim to have a working wetland that does exactly that – meets the needs of the people who need it.”

For an update on how Sally and Matt get on, watch this space…
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‘Speedy’ the satellite-tracked Greenland white-fronted goose has shown incredible endurance by taking a week to cross the treacherous two mile high Greenland ice cap without food or water.

Speedy was fitted with a GPS transmitter by WWT scientists back in February as he wintered on the Solway Firth near WWT Caerlaverock in Scotland. Weather conditions clearly affected the length of time he took to cross the ice-cap, but it is almost inconceivable that he was able to take seven days to fly and walk across one of the wider parts of the ice cap without any food and probably without water. This incredible feat of endurance further highlights the importance of plentiful feeding conditions at other sites along the flyway.

When analysing the pressure charts over this period, it appears Speedy had wind, rain and even snow against him which will have made the journey take longer. He has also taken a more northerly route than other geese tracked by WWT which will have ultimately taken him over one of the highest points of the ice cap as well as through some of the lowest temperatures.

The GPS data shows Speedy actually walked the last part of the route and this data has mapped the shape of the ice cap in that area in some detail.

Dr Larry Griffin, senior research officer at the WWT Caerlaverock explains: “I don’t think we’ve witnessed this sort of endurance before except from Ralph Fiennes! What this journey will have taken out of Speedy is anyone’s guess, but hopefully he will find good feeding on the east coast of Greenland to allow him to complete the next 450km to Iceland.”