Image description: View across a wetland, location unknown. Photo by Henry Be on Unsplash.

A £1.45m integrated constructed wetland (ICW) to further treat wastewater has been completed at Staplefield Wastewater Treatment Works in West Sussex, following the planting of more than 80,000 native wetland plants, shrubs and trees.

The project represents one of the first initiatives of its kind in England, diverting water that has been through Staplefield Wastewater Treatment Works into a wetland set in an eight-acre site. The wetland consists of four connected cells that the water trickles through, naturally filtering the wastewater to remove phosphorus and other pollutants before the water is discharged back into the River Ouse.

As well as using nature rather than chemicals to treat wastewater, wetlands deliver many other benefits, including carbon storage, landscape improvement and the creation of a valuable ecological and community asset. Made up of 14 different species of native wetland plants, the habitat is estimated to sequester approximately eight tonnes of CO₂ per year once it matures. According to Natural England approximately 90% of wetland habitats have been lost over the last 500 years.