The standard Lake Naivasha, about a hours drive north-west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is infamous for its flamingos and hippos.
However the lake is being invaded by invasive water hyacinths which are threatening the livelihoods of local fishermen.
The engines of their miniature boats and nets ceaselessly gain tousled up within the carpet of green. And with decreased oxygen within the water, there are fewer fish.
Fisherman Simon Macharia says he extinct to choose up a simply amount of fish sooner than the water hyacinth invaded.
“But when it affected the breeding zones, the fish decreased. We extinct to choose up up to 90 kilogrammes per day nevertheless now we gain between 10 and 15 kilogrammes,” he acknowledged.
But now a younger Kenyan, Joseph Nguthiru, has approach up with a answer that started as a final year university mission, following a disastrous self-discipline excursion that left him and his classmates caught on Lake Naivasha.
His firm, HyaPak, is working with the fishermen, harvesting the plant and reworking it into biodegradable packaging.
“What we’re making an strive to like a examine is, how fabricate we consume one peril which is water hyacinth to remedy the choice peril which is plastic break pollution,” says Nguthiru.
“How we fabricate here is that we work along with fishermen who’re affected at the lake, and we contract them to reap the water hyacinth for us.”
The plant is dried on location and then transported to HyaPak’s companies the put it’s mixed with binders and additives, which is then mixed and fashioned.
Nguthiru says the firm is calling into areas that like excessive plastic consume nevertheless must lumber sustainable and lumber green.
“One among these is agriculture, the put we now like a whole lot of seedlings being packaged in plastic luggage,” he says.
“We like our biodegradable luggage which would be inserted with the seedlings into the bottom. As they decompose the unencumber nutrients that tear up the growth payment of plants as nicely reducing the amount of water extinct in irrigation.”
HyaPak is already exporting to the United States and Germany, and it has plans to keep franchises in India and El Salvador, two international locations which would be also experiencing complications with the invasive plant.
