Water Hyacinth

Water Hyacinth Latest News

The rapid return of water hyacinth in the Mula-Mutha River, barely weeks after clean-up drives, has renewed concerns over the lack of a long-term solution.

About Water Hyacinth

• It is a free-floating, aquatic plant in the pickerelweed family.
• Scientific Name: Eichhornia crassipes
• It is native to tropical regions of South America and is now present on all continents except Antarctica.
• It is one of the world’s most serious water weeds because of its aggressive, fast-growing nature. 
• Water hyacinth grows in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. It grows best in still or slow-flowing fresh water with high nutrient levels. 
• Under favourable conditions it can double its mass every 5 days.
• It can form dense mats that reduce the water quality, change water flows, and increase sediment. 
• It crowds out native aquatic plants and animals, altering ecosystems, destroying habitats, and blocking irrigation systems.
• Cutting a water hyacinth plant into pieces will not kill it. The plants can reproduce using a process called fragmentation. Each plant also produces thousands of seeds each year.
• This plant varies in size from a few inches to over three feet tall. 
• They have showy lavender flowers, and the leaves are rounded and leathery, attached to spongy and sometimes inflated stalks.
• It was introduced to India during the British colonial rule as an ornamental aquatic plant from South America.
• Uses:
  • The plant has been used as a biofertilizer in some organic agriculture practices.
  • The plant produces beautiful purple flowers that have high aesthetic value. 
  • It is rich in fibrous stems that can be processed into a wide array of handbags, interior decorative material, table mats, baskets, and other products.
  • It has been reported that this plant is a good phytoremediation species, suggesting it has the ability to trap and remove toxic metabolites and harmful heavy metals from water.

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Key Facts about Mula-Mutha River

• The River Mula and Mutha are very important rivers passing through the centre of Pune city.
• The Mula and Mutha Rivers originate in the Sahyadri ranges.
• River Mula originates from Mulshi Dam, which forms Mulshi Lake. River Mutha originates from Panshet Dam via Khadakwasla Dam. 
• They traverse across Pune city and form the Mula-Mutha River, which eventually joins the Bhima River.

Source: HT