A group of students figured out how to engineer an amazing solution to their city's horrible pollution problem.
For a long time now, the farmers in Bujama, Peru have been dealing with poisoned plants. Due to intense mining runoff, their local water source, the Rímac River, is one of the planet's most polluted rivers. Filled to the brim with cadmium, arsenic, lead, and other deadly poisons, farmers have had to harvest their crops year after year knowing that they were tainted with these deadly metals.
The vegetables grown in this dangerous location have resulted in many food-borne illnesses for the people of Bujama, and while they're all aware of this fact, there wasn't much they could do about the contamination — until now.
A group of engineering students came up with an ingenious solution: When the ground is too dirty to grow plants, grow them in the sky. Using 48 plastic tubes with 51 holes in them, and all connected to dehumidifiers to supply fresh water, the students managed to grow 2,448 heads of untainted lettuce.
The students then gave away the plants to raise awareness for their project, and while that isn't enough to feed the whole city, it's certainly a step in the right direction. It's going to take years and years before the ground is clean again, and the best solution is to let Mother Nature clean out the carcinogens while they eat fresh vegetables.
What do you think of this amazing project? Hopefully we can all learn to respect the planet we live on, we only get one!
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