The student team from the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Brawijaya (FT UB), consisting of Water Resources Engineering students Class of 2021, namely Muthi’ah Raudhatul Jannah, Alvin Galih Aditya, Anindi Aprilia Kumalawati, succeeded in winning 1st place in the Environation competition organized by the Environmental Engineering Student Association, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh November. Dozens of teams from various prestigious universities in Indonesia, such as UI, ITB, and ITS attended this competition.

Environation is a major annual event on a national scale held by the Environmental Engineering Student Association of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (HMTL ITS) since 2014. Environation is an event based on the Environmental Engineering profession consisting of 2 sub-events, namely the Environmental Technology Innovation Competition (LITL) and Indonesia Environmental Talk Show (IET).

He is supervised by Dr.Eng. Ir. Riyanto Haribowo, ST., MT., IPM. This team raised the working title Domestic Wastewater Treatment Installation Using the Upflow Floating Treatment Wetland Method in Urban Parks. This Upflow Trew installation can increase domestic wastewater, consisting of three pools, by utilizing water plants and different heights to circulate air from bottom to top in each collection. The design of each pool is 1.2 meters long, a minimum height of 1.5 meters and a height difference of around 1 meter so that waste processing capacity can be optimal.

“The city of Malang has a very dense population and tends to lack land, especially for important facilities such as waste water management. In fact, the impact of waste that is not processed properly is very detrimental to the environment and living creatures. Therefore, we are proposing an air infrastructure innovation in the form of integrated wastewater management using the Upflow Trew method,” explained Muthi’ah.

Furthermore, Muthi’ah also explained that pollutants in domestic wastewater could be reduced by utilizing aquatic plants in each pond; namely, the first pond operated water hyacinth plants (Eichornia crassipes), the second pond utilized apu wood plants (Pistia sp), while the third pond using the air jasmine plant (Echinodorus palaefolius). However, in the third Upflow Trew pond, a simple infiltration system was added using waste from pine flower shells as active carbon and plastic bottles to grow inorganic microbes.

Upflow Trew (Upflow Floating Treatment Wetland) is an efficient way to improve the quality of wastewater before disposal and plays a role in maintaining overall environmental balance. By utilizing floating equipment such as aerial vegetation or physical barriers above the air surface. The use of Floating Treatment Wetlands can also be applied to regulate air rain reduce the potential for flooding, often, this method is more environmentally friendly compared to conventional waste processing technology, which requires the use of chemicals or greater energy and manages airflow more efficiently. [drn]