Instead, you are greeted with the humid, verdant-smelling air typical of any large greenhouse. Snails cling to the inside of the transparent tanks, sucking up algae growth that blocks essential sunlight from reaching the water. A large indoor 'pond' contains more plants, including banana and fig trees. Plant manager Carol Armstrong doubles as an enthusiastic tour-guide. She leads a constant stream of visitors through the voyage the waste takes before it flows into the river.
Pumps first inject fine air bubbles into an underground tank of blended sewage.
When combined with the bacteria Armstrong adds daily, this sewage becomes, quite literally, food for consumption. It enters the five-foot high tanks where bacteria, algae and protozoa are at work detoxifying many harmful microbes in the water. We tried some water lettuce and semi-tropical plants,' Armstrong says, sounding more like a farmer than a sewage treatment plant operator, 'but local varieties seem to do better than tropical ones so next spring I will be planting a lot of local stuff'. The plants are currently composted but she has plans to sell the ornamental flowers once more residents are hooked up to the plant. At the moment the facility operates at just a fifth of its capacity of 50,000 litres a day.