Anxiety has gripped the lakeside communities of Nyanza and Western Kenya following the return of the water hyacinth. The weed has spread to an estimated 150 acres along the beaches of Kisumu and Homa Bay districts, and is present on Rusinga Island and Uyoma.

Anxiety has gripped the lakeside communities of Nyanza and Western Kenya following the return of the water hyacinth.
The weed has spread to an estimated 150 acres along the beaches of Kisumu and Homa Bay districts, and is present on Rusinga Island and Uyoma.

The lake's surface is partially covered by the pest, spreading misery to the fishing community and local homes. Many of them will miss their favourite dish and water for domestic and industrial use.

The weed started creeping back to the lake in August. Now transporters, fishermen and domestic water users are alarmed. The lake might live to its infamous reference: the world's largest pool of dead water.

Seven years ago, fishing boats were abandoned as local communities stared starvation and penury in the face. Some people even contemplated moving out. They thought the area had been hit by a calamity beyond redemption. The islands, too, were cut off the mainland.

Millions of people in the three East African countries derive their livelihood from the lake, the second largest fresh water reservoir in the world.

The painful memories are reawakening. Fishing and transport dhows are unable to reach the open waters, while Kisumu Town, which virtually sits on the lake, has dry taps. The weed is increasing in volume every day.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the hyacinth covered an estimated 12,000 hectares of the Kenyan and Ugandan shores.

Fish died in large numbers as the weed chocked the lake of air and sunlight.

Susceptible to poor water

Its return will negatively affect the Sh6.5 billion a year fishing industry. Already, fish stocks are getting depleted.

The most affected is Nile perch, which accounted for Sh4 billion of the industry's total earnings last year and which tops the export figures. The fish is highly susceptible to poor quality water.

For two weeks now, water in the town has been rationed over what the managing director of Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company, Mr David Onyango, describes as clogging of the main water intake at Dunga beach. Cases of malaria and bilharzia diseases may increase, owing to the weed.

Dr Richard Abila, the deputy director in charge of inland waters, says remnants of the weed were scattered all over the water body but the current resurgence is alarming. The weed takes just three days to multiply in volume.

Dr Abila attributes proliferation of the weed to enrichment of the environment by effluent from the expanding human population.

Raging waters from rivers and strong winds swept remnants of the weed to the deep waters, he said. Raw sewage, fertilisers and chemicals washed from farms in the highlands are also conducive to proliferation of the water hyacinth.

The green plant produces beautiful purple flowers and has long fibrous roots.

Spongy tissue in its stem enables it to float. It grows in clusters that intertwine to form floating mats.

Dr Abila says beetles can, once again, tackle the menace. But experts say reintroducing them will tamper with the lake's equilibrium. The beetles might eat the hyacinth in entirety, only to lack food and die, too.

The experts add that the recent heavy rains pushed the hyacinth to the gulf, but that there has been no increase in its coverage.

Dr Abila recalls the time beetles were introduced to the lake as a biological control measure. The idea was ridiculed by many officials, including foreign scientists. But the insects won the battle.

No amount of effort will eradicate the hyacinth from the water, but it should be continually suppressed by the insects, says Dr Abila.

"The beetles also inhibit flowering of the weed, preventing further reproduction," he says. The weed is yet to reach this stage.

The last time it clogged up the lake, millions of dollars from local and international agencies were spent to clear it up, but in vain.

Multi-million dollar harvesting machines were sent to the lake as a European answer to the crisis. Various chemical companies also set up offices locally, hoping to secure contracts to attack the weed.

The World Bank had allocated US$9.3 million (about Sh6.9 billion) to the project, as part of a larger Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP).

But by late 1999, the weed, covering more than 12,000 hectares along the shores of Kenya and Uganda, stared dying. It was beaten without much fuss, and at a comparatively small cost.


Remnants of '99 venture

Last week, during a survey of the lake, red and white beetles were seen feeding on leaves of the weed. The beetles, too, are remnants of the ones introduced seven years ago.

Dr Abila says the weed, eichoirnia crassippes, was introduced to the lake through River Kagera in Rwanda, after it was brought in as a pot flower from South America.

Fiends of Lake Victoria lobbyist Okoth Mireri says re-emergence of the weed is a wake up call to the Government to enforce laws on water bodies. He adds that there is an insufficient legal framework to protect lakes.

Lake Victoria is gradually becoming a sewage pond that facilitates growth of all sorts of weeds, said Mr Mireri. It is also threatened by over fishing and pollution.

He and Dr Abila say beetles will, eventually, wipe out the weed

Source:http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/