The fight against the invasive water hyacinth, a kind of weed floating on Lake Victoria has received a boost after the government of India donated to kisumu county government a machine to harvest the weed.

Kisumu governor Anyang’ Nyong’o disclosed that the donation of the machine which costs 40 million was as a result of his visit to India back in 2018.

“Today, the innovators of the Ksh40 million water the hyacinth harvesting machine donated to Kisumu County by the Indian Government called on me at my office. A donation that has come following my visit to India in the year 2018,” Nyongo Stated

The machine which has the capacity to harvest 3 metric tones of hyacinth per 10 minutes will be assembled at the lakeside city under the guidance of Indian engineers  Godach Marashna and Vinod Kumar.

The  harvested hyacinth can then be used to produce methane gas, making furniture, organic manure and paper which will in turn spur the economic standing of the lakeside city due to the income generated from hyacinth by-products and the myriad employment opportunities created.

The hyacinth which has its origins from South America, has been a menace to many rivers and dams world over as the vegetation clogs waterways and water reservoirs. Efforts to control it has seen a huge amount of money go down the drain as scientists and other stakeholders try to find a solution.

In 1997, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) came up with a biological method of dealing with the hyacinth, where beetles would be unleashed into the lake to eat and destroy the hyacinth.

KARI imported adult weevils from Australia, Uganda and South Africa for mass rearing. Over Ksh4.2 million weevils were released into the lake. However, the weevils stopped eating the hyacinth and instead invaded nearby farms and started destroying crops.

The hyacinth which now covers most of the lake, has pushed fishermen out of business by invading their fishing grounds hence making it hard for their fishing activities