A New Environmental Machine Is Cleaning Up a Panama River
2022-11-07
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1Latin America's first renewable fuel-powered, trash-trapping wheel is cleaning one of Panama's dirtiest rivers.
2A local environmental group led the anti-pollution effort.
3The wheel is powered by water and solar energy.
4It pulls waste out of the Juan Diaz River.
5Most of the waste comes from the capital area of Panama City where about 2 million people live.
6Thousands of kilograms of trash flow down the river into the ocean each year.
7Robert Getman is the leader of the project.
8"Cleaning beaches is good," he said, "but it is more effective and cheaper to trap garbage in rivers because when it reaches the ocean, the environmental and economic cost becomes too high."
9The environmental group Marea Verde launched the wheel, which is named Wanda Diaz, in late September.
10By the middle of October, Wanda had gathered 28.6 cubic meters of plastic bottles from the water.
11The Juan Diaz River is one of the most polluted in Panama.
12Waste systems in the area are poor, and land development is not well supervised.
13The river also passes through Panama City, one of Central America's largest cities.
14Still, the waterway and its mangrove trees are home to lizards, turtles and birds.
15Over five years, Marea Verde projects have slowed the spread of trash along Panama's rivers and coastline.
16Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the group launched its "Barrier or Trash" technology, a floating device.
17It captured more than 100 metric tons of waste in the Matias Hernandez River between 2019 and 2020.
18The Baltimore Bay "Trashwheel" in the United States was the model for Marea Verde's Wanda machine.
19Wanda even has cameras with artificial intelligence that can recognize and sort different plastics.
20"We want to raise awareness that we can prevent the death of this very important river," said Marea Verde leader Sandy Watemberg.
21She expressed her hope that the wheel will help.
22But she also pointed to the need for those who use single-use plastics to rethink their behavior.
23"The most important thing is to achieve a change in habits," she said.
24I'm Caty Weaver.
1Latin America's first renewable fuel-powered, trash-trapping wheel is cleaning one of Panama's dirtiest rivers. 2A local environmental group led the anti-pollution effort. 3The wheel is powered by water and solar energy. It pulls waste out of the Juan Diaz River. Most of the waste comes from the capital area of Panama City where about 2 million people live. Thousands of kilograms of trash flow down the river into the ocean each year. 4Robert Getman is the leader of the project. 5"Cleaning beaches is good," he said, "but it is more effective and cheaper to trap garbage in rivers because when it reaches the ocean, the environmental and economic cost becomes too high." 6The environmental group Marea Verde launched the wheel, which is named Wanda Diaz, in late September. By the middle of October, Wanda had gathered 28.6 cubic meters of plastic bottles from the water. 7The Juan Diaz River is one of the most polluted in Panama. Waste systems in the area are poor, and land development is not well supervised. The river also passes through Panama City, one of Central America's largest cities. 8Still, the waterway and its mangrove trees are home to lizards, turtles and birds. 9Over five years, Marea Verde projects have slowed the spread of trash along Panama's rivers and coastline. 10Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the group launched its "Barrier or Trash" technology, a floating device. It captured more than 100 metric tons of waste in the Matias Hernandez River between 2019 and 2020. 11The Baltimore Bay "Trashwheel" in the United States was the model for Marea Verde's Wanda machine. Wanda even has cameras with artificial intelligence that can recognize and sort different plastics. 12"We want to raise awareness that we can prevent the death of this very important river," said Marea Verde leader Sandy Watemberg. She expressed her hope that the wheel will help. 13But she also pointed to the need for those who use single-use plastics to rethink their behavior. 14"The most important thing is to achieve a change in habits," she said. 15I'm Caty Weaver. 16Elida Moreno reported this story for Reuters. Caty Weaver adapted it for VOA Learning English. 17_____________________________________________________________________ 18Words in This Story 19beach -n. an area next to the sea, lake or river that is covered with sand or small rocks 20cheap -v. not costly 21garbage -n. waste, things that are thrown away 22artificial intelligence -n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence 23sort -v. to separate and put things in order, often grouping similar things together 24achieve -v. to get or reach something by working hard 25habit -n. something that a person does regularly. 26_____________________________________________________________________ 27We want to hear from you. 28We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 29Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.