The startup cleaning Hartbeespoort Dam by turning water hyacinth into fertiliser

This is problematic. There is now no longer an incentive to rid the dam of the pest, but rather to keep the revenue stream going.
 
we've been saying... the money supposed to go to cleaning this dam was probly squandered by the local municipality, allowing the stuff to take over the dam so much that you cant even see the water.
a good option, cheaper than the big contracts to clean, would have been to offer the local vagrants in the squatter camp nearby, to come remove the plants, offer them something like R1 per Kg of plants removed... it cleans the dam, offers employment and income to unemployed locals, and saves the council lots of money.
but good to see something being done, lets hope they can keep it up.
at the rate this stuff grows, it seems it will be a continual process
 
CeeBee said:
we've been saying... the money supposed to go to cleaning this dam was probly squandered by the local municipality, allowing the stuff to take over the dam so much that you cant even see the water.
a good option, cheaper than the big contracts to clean, would have been to offer the local vagrants in the squatter camp nearby, to come remove the plants, offer them something like R1 per Kg of plants removed... it cleans the dam, offers employment and income to unemployed locals, and saves the council lots of money.
but good to see something being done, lets hope they can keep it up.
at the rate this stuff grows, it seems it will be a continual process
Click to expand...

Then people start fighting for their share of the plant, it has to be well controlled
 
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Sinbad said:
This is problematic. There is now no longer an incentive to rid the dam of the pest, but rather to keep the revenue stream going.
Click to expand...

It should be a time-limited project, once it's cleared, then the contract/project ends
 
Hopefully some testing done. Surely, right?
Can imagine high concentrations of heavy metal in those hyacinth.
 
When I was a kid this stuff was a problem, mid 80's.

I doubt that they will ever clear it completely but this will really help keeping it manageable :)
 
Bigger-crops-600x377.jpg


Picture is misleading, can easily tell the one plant is more mature by the leaf structure, rather give us the NPK content...
 
AstroTurf said:
Bigger-crops-600x377.jpg


Picture is misleading, can easily tell the one plant is more mature by the leaf structure, rather give us the NPK content...
Click to expand...

The part that is missing is the date of planting. Maturity could be as a result of nutrition..
 
Any which way. About time they clean that stench from the dam. If the wind blows the wrong direction, dam on our side is completely covered and the smell is rancid :sick:
 
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CeeBee said:
we've been saying... the money supposed to go to cleaning this dam was probly squandered by the local municipality, allowing the stuff to take over the dam so much that you cant even see the water.
a good option, cheaper than the big contracts to clean, would have been to offer the local vagrants in the squatter camp nearby, to come remove the plants, offer them something like R1 per Kg of plants removed... it cleans the dam, offers employment and income to unemployed locals, and saves the council lots of money.
but good to see something being done, lets hope they can keep it up.
at the rate this stuff grows, it seems it will be a continual process
Click to expand...


Very good suggestion!
cheaper than the big contracts to clean, would have been to offer the local vagrants in the squatter camp nearby, to come remove the plants, offer them something like R1 per Kg of plants removed... it cleans the dam, offers employment and income to unemployed locals, and saves the council lots of money.
 
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It seems employing local vagrants in menial labour tasks is the way to solve all of mankinds problems
 
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CeeBee said:
offer the local vagrants in the squatter camp nearby, to come remove the plants, offer them something like R1 per Kg of plants removed... it cleans the dam, offers employment and income to unemployed locals, and saves the council lots of money.
Click to expand...
neilronaldson said:
Very good suggestion!
cheaper than the big contracts to clean, would have been to offer the local vagrants in the squatter camp nearby, to come remove the plants, offer them something like R1 per Kg of plants removed... it cleans the dam, offers employment and income to unemployed locals, and saves the council lots of money.
Click to expand...
Read up on the Cobra Effect.

Snake (cobra) plague in India. In a bid to incentivise snake eradication the government offers one rupee for each snake head/skin turned in. This works well and thousands of severed snake heads and skins pile up. The next year even more cobra heads/skins are brought in. Government pats self on back for genius idea of solving a problem and helping the community. Year three turns in a record number of severed cobra heads/skins, with no sign of slowdown. Eventually officials discover widespread cobra-breeding to take advantage of the incentive. The payment is stopped, and the snakes in breeding are turned loose, resulting in even more snakes in the wild than at the height of the plague.

Hanoi did something equally stupid with their rat plague. Payment for each rat tail brought in. The city was overrun by tailless rats, let loose to breed more rats and produce more tails.

In South Africa we incentivise teenage schoolgirl pregnancies.
 
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CeeBee said:
we've been saying... the money supposed to go to cleaning this dam was probly squandered by the local municipality, allowing the stuff to take over the dam so much that you cant even see the water.
a good option, cheaper than the big contracts to clean, would have been to offer the local vagrants in the squatter camp nearby, to come remove the plants, offer them something like R1 per Kg of plants removed... it cleans the dam, offers employment and income to unemployed locals, and saves the council lots of money.
but good to see something being done, lets hope they can keep it up.
at the rate this stuff grows, it seems it will be a continual process
Click to expand...

Only time until they start stuffing their 1kg bags with rocks to up the weight...
 
Sinbad said:
This is problematic. There is now no longer an incentive to rid the dam of the pest, but rather to keep the revenue stream going.
Click to expand...
1) I don't think you can clear the plants.
It has the great reproduction potential as it grows double in 5 to 15 days[14,16,49,51]. Only ten plants in just eight months can produce population of 655,330 individuals[14]. It commonly forms dense, interlocking mats due to its rapid reproductive rate and complex root structure[52]. It reproduces both sexually and asexually[53]. It is
Click to expand...
2) The reason why there is a problem is because of the agricultural run-off from the nearby farms.
The growth rate of water hyacinth is strongly dependent upon the concentration of dissolved nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the water[67-69]. Sato and Kondo[70] reported that its maximum growth rate can be achieved at 28 mg/L of total N and 7.7 mg/L of total P. The levels of available nitrogen and phosphorus have often been cited as the most important factors in limiting water hyacinth growth[69,71-74].
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http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.re.20120205.04.html#Sec3.1

So unless if you close the farms, you are going to have a problem regardless of how many plants you kill.
I think this is going to do wonders for the quality of the water as they will be taking the nitrogen out the water by harvesting it.
 
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konfab said:
1) I don't think you can clear the plants.

2) The reason why there is a problem is because of the agricultural run-off from the nearby farms.


http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.re.20120205.04.html#Sec3.1

So unless if you close the farms, you are going to have a problem regardless of how many plants you kill.
I think this is going to do wonders for the quality of the water as they will be taking the nitrogen out the water by harvesting it.
Click to expand...
Nothing to do with nearby farms. It's the upstream sewage flow that's the issue
 
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