Culled from Danish news website: Verdens Bedste Nyheder
Story originally published in Danish by Anna Gudmann Hansen
The water hyacinth is a large, green, water lily-like plant with beautiful purple flowers. And it’s one of the worst invasive plants in the world.
Because the plant, which is native to Latin America, has spread to large parts of the world where it is not actually native, and here it is causing major problems as an invasive species. One of the places where it is a huge problem is Nigeria.
Bolaji Alonge knows all about this. He is a photographer and lives in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, which lies on the coast and where a large lagoon covers much of the city’s surrounding land.
“It comes out when we get to the end of the year. From Christmas until February it’s completely apocalyptic. I really think that’s the only thing you can see when you look out over the lagoon,” he says.
The plant is both a problem for locals who cannot get around by boat, it kills life in the water, and it is almost impossible to combat.
Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria and there are many surrounding villages. The three that were the focus of the water hyacinth project were Ejirin, Oriba and Saga.
Together with local partners – and with support from Denmark – Bolaji Alonge has implemented a project that has made the locals see the water hyacinth as more than just a pest. If done right, the water hyacinth can be used for all sorts of different things: making baskets, lamps and blankets, but also biochar and fertilizer.
The plague came in the 1980s
The water hyacinth is actually native to Latin America, where it takes care of itself like so many other plants. But back in the late 1800s, traveling merchants began putting the plants in pots, taking them with them on trips, and giving them as gifts because the purple flowers are so pretty. That was the start of an invasion. In the 1930s, water hyacinths reached Africa. In the 1980s, they hit Lagos.
“I remember as a child in the 1980s seeing the water hyacinths on TV for the first time,” says Alonge.
The plant is strong, and it grows exponentially, he says. Desalegn Chala agrees with him.
He is a botanist and researcher at the University of Oslo, and he knows a lot about invasive species. He is originally from Ethiopia, and here he has just looked at the water hyacinth and the locals’ attempts to get rid of the plant. He says that there are many reasons why it is so difficult to get rid of.
“It grows quickly,” Desalegn Chala asserts. “It can double its biomass in just two weeks. So if you have one hectare covered in water hyacinths, after two weeks it will be two hectares and so on.”
He explains that water hyacinth seeds can hide in the soil for up to 30 years. This means that a new plant can grow from the seeds at any time. And even small parts of the plant can also multiply into completely new plants, just as you know from a cutting from a potted plant.
“Even when you remove it, if just one seed hides in the sediment, or if a piece of it remains in the water, it can come back both quickly and easily,” he says.
In the EU, water hyacinth has been on the list of invasive species since 2016. This means that it is illegal to trade it, import it into the EU, cultivate it, or release it into the wild.
When you hear about invasive species, you probably think of some of the ones we struggle with here in Denmark. But there is a long way from the brightly colored lupines that spread along Danish roadsides in the summer to the water hyacinths in Nigeria. While invasive species here are mostly something that affects biodiversity, it is a matter of life or death for people when the water hyacinth has spread its roots into the water in Nigeria.
Because when the water hyacinth spreads, it forms a thick mat over the water, making it impossible to sail through with a small boat. And in Lagos there are many villages that can only be reached by boat.
“There are cases of pregnant women who need to be transported to the hospital but end up getting trapped and having to give birth to their child in the boat. You can be trapped in the boat for days because there is no movement,” says Alonge.
He has actually met a woman to whom it happened – fortunately both she and the child survived.
When the water hyacinths bloom in January and February, they form a thick green mat over the water.
Local photographer Bolaji Alonge calls the plant apocalyptic. There are also children who cannot go to school, and there are many locals who earn money and provide food as fishermen, but the plants also support their livelihood.
Come back in full bloom
Recently, Desalegn Chala published a study in which he and a number of research colleagues looked at how to bring the plant to life.
He looked at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Here, 75 percent of the water hyacinths that had spread into the water were removed in November-December 2020. It was a huge job, he says, thousands of people were involved – yet all the plants were back the following year. In fact, 18 percent more plants had grown since then.
It doesn’t work to just remove the plants once, he says. Bigger changes need to be made: Large amounts of nutrients in the water, which come from agriculture and wastewater, provide the plant with good growth conditions, so the water quality simply needs to be improved.
In the study, Chala and his colleagues emphasize that water hyacinths – rather than just being a problem in themselves – should be seen as a symptom of a problem: That there are too many nutrients and too much pollution in the water.
The invasive water hyacinth is spreading its roots into the water, which is having a devastating impact on local communities. Photo: Bolaji Alonge/Eyes of a Lagos Boy
He emphasizes that there is a constant focus on improving agriculture and waste management, and several of the countries where the plant is a problem will develop and become richer, and this will probably also mean cleaner water and fewer water hyacinths in the future.
“In the short term it will continue to be a problem, but in the long term I am optimistic,” he says.
The water hyacinth is not just a waste
Even though the water hyacinths will come back, it may be a good idea to remove the plants again and again. And to do that, it helps to see them as a resource.
“It doesn’t help to just remove them once,” says Desalegn Chala. “But you can keep removing it, and then you can use it for different things. For example, you can make paper, biochar, compost or furniture for the house out of it. That way, if you sell it, it can cover the costs of continuing to remove the plant.”
This is where Bolaji Alonge and his project come into the picture again.
“There’s a certain way to collect them and cut them, and a certain way to spread them and dry them. We’ve taught that to people in these villages,” he says.
A few years ago, Kristeligt Dagblad wrote about the entrepreneur behind it, Achenyo Idachaba-Obaro, and her company.
“We trained 300 people on how to process the plants. So the villages can use the skills and pass them on to others. Even though the project is over, the skills stay in the community,” says Alonge.
“This means that the water hyacinth is not just a total waste.”
Although the problem of the invasive water hyacinth is a huge problem, Bolaji Alonge is also optimistic.
“I think there will be a bigger fight against it as more attention is paid to the problem and as we discover how we can harness the plant,” he says. “I wake up every day believing that we can solve what seems impossible. I believe that’s the only way to change the world.”
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