YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS:Seeing water hyacinth as economic input
What you need to know:
These two national observances have conjured up in me, as if by magic, the need to look into Engineers, and a plant – the ‘water hyacinth,’ to be exact, and without beating about the bush!
Today, July 20, is ‘Tree-Planting Day’ in the Central African Republic on the African Continent – and ‘Engineers Day’ in the Republic of Costa Rica in Central America.
These two national observances have conjured up in me, as if by magic, the need to look into Engineers, and a plant – the ‘water hyacinth,’ to be exact, and without beating about the bush!
Engineers need to be honoured as a breed of people who can carry through an enterprise by skillful (or even artful) contrivance, usually to meaningful and sustainable socio-economic developmental levels.
[Never mind that ‘July 20’ is also celebrated in History as ‘International Chess Day.’ This is in honour of the popular, ‘intellectual’ board game for two players strategically using a
checkerboard and 16 chessmen/chess pieces each...
[This is also to say nothing of the commemoration on July 20 of ‘Margaret the Virgin’ (not to be confused with Mary the Virgin, ‘Mother of Jesus the Christ’); the Korean Martyr John Baptist Yi (also NOT to be confused with the ‘Biblical John the Baptist’... [And the death on July 20, 2014 of the American football player ‘Bob McNamara’ (NOT to be confused with Robert Strange MacNamara, the US Defence Secretary: 1961-1968!]
The story here today’s really about the ‘water hyacinth,’ which is defined by lexicographers as “a showy South American floating acquatic plant – ‘Eichhornia crassipes’ of the family ‘Pontederiaceae’ –thatoften clogs waterways in warm regions...”
Indeed, the water hyacinth habitat isn’t ‘confined to the ‘Americas,’ as lexicographers would’ve us believe. As it is, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that border on Lake Victoria in the African Great Lakes Region are no strangers to the plant!
Unfortunately, the water hyacinth has for far too long been viewed as a bane rather than the huge boon that it is – especially from the socio-economic developmental points of view!
Admittedly, water hyacinths [‘Magugumaji’ in ki-Swahili] may clog waterways... Their rate of proliferation under certain favourable conditions is extremely rapid, spreading over large areas of water, a ‘carpet’ of up-to-two metres thick!
The weed reduces light and oxygen penetration, changes water chemistry, and fuels water loss due to evapo-transpiration, thus adversely affecting flora and fauna.
The weed also causes practical problems for marine transportation, fishing, water intakes for hydro-electric production and irrigation schemes. Unfortunately, water hyacinth combine in an unholy alliance with Climate Change and Environmental Destruction via human activity and ‘harmful’ technologies – and could arguably wipe Lake Victoria off the world map of great water bodies by Year-2100 if left ‘uncontrolled!’
[Nipashe: Dec. 21, 2012]. Somewhat lamely, Tanzania has embarked upon manually ‘harvesting’ the rampant weed out of the lake ostensibly to remedy the problem.
These are dried out on land – and then incinerated... reportedly at the rate of a measly four tonnes a day! [‘HabariLeo:’ Dec. 20, 2012].
This is an exercise in futility, as the weed ‘multiplies’ faster than it can be plucked out of the water by hand, rake or whatever! A more ‘advanced’ method is to ‘culture’ weed-attacking organisms (‘Mbawakavu’) on land, then return the ‘diseased’ weeds to the lake where the organisms ‘attack/kill healthy’ hyacinths!
This is an expensive and slow process – even as more and more hyacinths are spawned in/on the water!
Indeed, Tanzania needs to take the proverbial leaf out of the book of countries which embrace water hyacinths as valuable inputs in socio-economic development activities – having found ways and means to
actually gain from the pestilence! [See‘Putting water hyacinth to gainful applications; Daily News: Dec. 31, 2012].
With its fibrous tissue and a high-energy protein content, the water hyacinth is used elsewhere in the viable production of paper; fibreboard; yarn; rope; basketry; fertilisers, biogas, fish feed, water purification [Gopal: 1987; Hyder: 1989]; charcoal briquettes [Eden: 1994] and animal fodder [Thailand National Academy of Sciences: 1976]!
Nextdoor Kenya’s already working on the briquettes possibility… Where is Tanzania in on these value-addition positives, pray? Cheers!
