A reactor could remove pollutants from liquid sewerage and recycle them into an environmentally safe commercial fertiliser.

This was revealed at a seminar titled 'Nutrient recovery from wastewater' organised by Bangladesh Forum for Municipal and Urban Development (BFMUD) at the LGED Bhaban on Thursday.

President of BFMUD Quamrul Islam Siddique chaired the seminar while Local Government Division Secretary SM Jahrul Islam was present as the chief guest.

Chief Engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) Shahidul Hassan attended the seminar as the special guest while Iqbal Hossain Bhuiyan, PhD student of the University of British Columbia (UCB) in Canada, presented a keynote paper.

Iqbal Hossain said a group of researchers of the UBC developed the core technology of the wastewater management over a period of five years, which is now being implemented in Japan and the Netherlands.

"The research team designed a reactor, which not only removed in excess of 90 per cent of the influent phosphorus, but also resulted in formation of a highly pure, slow release fertiliser in granular form," Iqbal Hossain, one of the members of the research team told BSS.

In his keynote paper, he said gradually depleting naturally occurring phosphorous resources and their decreasing purity are likely to make the recovery and recycling phosphorus from potentially rich waste streams.

The option of recycling phosphorus from wastewater also solves the wastewater treatment problem and provides an environmentally sound and renewable nutrient source for the agriculture industries.

Iqbal Hossain said with the support of the donor agencies operating in Bangladesh, it could be possible to apply the technology in the country's only sewage treatment plant at Pagla in Narayanganj.

Jahrul Islam asked WASA high officials to take an immediate step for evaluating the implementation feasibility of the technology in the country.

Waste experts and high officials of LGED and Dhaka WASA attended the seminar.