The in model Lake Naivasha, a couple of hours drive north-west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is accepted for its flamingos and hippos.
However the lake is being invaded by invasive water hyacinths which would be threatening the livelihoods of native fishermen.
The engines of their minute boats and nets normally get knotted up up within the carpet of green. And with decreased oxygen within the water, there are fewer fish.
Fisherman Simon Macharia says he former to procure a first payment amount of fish earlier than the water hyacinth invaded.
“But when it affected the breeding zones, the fish decreased. We former to procure up to 90 kilogrammes per day however now we get between 10 and 15 kilogrammes,” he acknowledged.
But now a younger Kenyan, Joseph Nguthiru, has come up with a resolution that started as a final one year college mission, following a disastrous discipline tour that left him and his classmates caught on Lake Naivasha.
His company, HyaPak, is working with the fishermen, harvesting the plant and transforming it into biodegradable packaging.
“What we’re making an try to stumble on at is, how will we divulge one discipline which is water hyacinth to clear up the diversified discipline which is plastic fracture air pollution,” says Nguthiru.
“How we attain right here’s that we work alongside side fishermen who’re affected at the lake, and we contract them to harvest the water hyacinth for us.”
The plant is dried on website and then transported to HyaPak’s facilities where it’s miles mixed with binders and additives, which is then mixed and fashioned.
Nguthiru says the corporate is taking a look into spaces which maintain excessive plastic divulge however deserve to shuffle sustainable and shuffle green.
“Idea to be this sort of is agriculture, where we have a technique of seedlings being packaged in plastic baggage,” he says.
“We maintain our biodegradable baggage which would be inserted with the seedlings into the ground. As they decompose the birth vitamins that tempo up the increase payment of plants as successfully reducing the amount of water former in irrigation.”
HyaPak is already exporting to the usa and Germany, and it has plans to place franchises in India and El Salvador, two countries which would be additionally experiencing complications with the invasive plant.
