tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33609963.post1357119399250493600..comments2023-10-26T01:06:19.047-07:00Comments on Locus Amoenus: Lake Victoria, or how water hyacinth is like the chatter in our mindshmbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162178606593429157noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33609963.post-8481909756502385872011-02-28T22:26:25.360-08:002011-02-28T22:26:25.360-08:00Whether the hyacinth blows away or not, whether th...Whether the hyacinth blows away or not, whether there is some way of making its existence profitable or not, its time a way is found to make the people living around the lake continue with their lives without feeling chocked or frustrated by the existence of the hyacinth. The administration should find away to work with the communities around the lake to ensure that economic activities that support livelihoods of the people are not blocked as is the case now. Fishermen can not go to the water to fish, the boats and ship involved in transport business cannot operate and even the recreational activities like boat rides and sport fishing are paralysed.<br /><br />The hyacinth in my view is a manageable problem that has just not received proper attention by the authorities. The first step is to open up the lake to ensure the economic activities are continuing, then think of away to utilize the hyacinth as a resource for generating methane or be briquetted into bio fuel like Steve mentioned among many other ways.<br /><br />Its unfortunate that the people here wait for it to be blown away like you may have noticed Halle, but the fact is, when its blown away it basically relocates to the other side of the lake and presents the same problems like it does here in Kisumu. So even the movement of the hyacinth in itself is not a solution but just a shifted problem within the same lake.<br /><br />The lake is actually neglected by the authorities here because you may have noticed that the waters of the lake is very brown and dirty and in some sides within this region its infested with a greenish mist, basically algae which is an indication of the fertility of the water basically due to impurities emerging from pollution. Part of this is because most of the lake inlets are in this regions where rivers feed the lake with brown waters from the mountains and plains but the other is pollution from effluents sometime raw from factories and industries few as they are that operate in Kisumu and neighbouring towns like Bondo and Homabay. This fertility of the lake waters also act as the catalyst for the rapid reproduction of the water hyacinth basically adding salt to the already injured and chocked communities that depend on the lake.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04270088332654118171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33609963.post-12765777486414824442011-02-24T07:36:41.141-08:002011-02-24T07:36:41.141-08:00touche. though the residents of kisumu literally d...touche. though the residents of kisumu literally do wait for the hyacinth to "blow away," as it does at certain points throughout the year... the writing was also meant to be metaphoric, but in which case harvesting and utilizing still makes good sense.hmbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02162178606593429157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33609963.post-49481150725817242182011-02-23T07:03:51.867-08:002011-02-23T07:03:51.867-08:00Water hyacinth isn't going to blow away. It m...Water hyacinth isn't going to blow away. It must be repeatedly harvested and utilized profitably. Only the energy market is hungry enough to consume it. There are several ways to make it into fuel, my favorite being anaerobic digestion into methane, but it can be briquetted into biofuel briquettes and burned in the new low-pollution stoves that produce charcoal as a byproduct, and the charcoal used as fuel or biochar. The advantages of biochar include the fact that it partly preserves the huge carbon sink that the plant represents.SteveKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12258007746132089919noreply@blogger.com