Environment

Water Hyacinth Clogs Africa's Lake Victoria - Again

The invasive water hyacinth plant is again threatening to choke the waters of Africa’s greatest lake, endangering fishing along the Kenya-Uganda border.

European colonists brought the decorative plant to Africa in 1879. It reached Lake Victoria 110 years later, forming thick mats that covered about 77 square miles by 1998.

It then clogged hydroelectric facilities and caused losses to the fishing industry.

But the plant virtually disappeared a few years later, some believe due to the introduction of a weevil intended to control the plant’s growth, and other measures.

But huge mats of the floating plant have reemerged in recent years, hampering fishermen and providing harbours for mosquitoes and snakes, locals complain.