The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (PCB) has informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that multiple departments are involved in checking the menace of water hyacinths through the economic utilisation of the problem plant.
About 1,904 tonnes of the plant have already been transported for utilisation under the government’s Nava Keralam action plan implemented in various local bodies. The Centre for Research on Aquatic Resources, S. D. College, Alappuzha, is making value addition of water hyacinth through rural technologies.
The Kottapuram Integrated Development Society, Thrissur, is also working on natural fibre using water hyacinths, according to a report submitted by the PCB before the southern Bench of the tribunal on September 6.
The green body had earlier pulled up the authorities for the delay in initiating steps to check the menace of water hyacinths that had choked several waterbodies across the State. The court had also suggested productive use of the plant.
The board had sought the reply of various departments and agencies, including the Haritha Keralam Mission, Suchitwa Mission, Irrigation department, Directorate of Agriculture, Kottapuram Integrated Development Society, to submit the steps being taken to eradicate water hyacinths.
Local bodies in Alappuzha and Kottayam had cashed in on the economic benefits through the sale of dried water hyacinth stems to private firms in Tamil Nadu. Neelamperoor grama panchayat in Alappuzha had earned ₹7.3 lakh after the sale of around 750 loads of dried water hyacinth stems to a private company in the initial phase of the project which was implemented under the Navakeralam Karma Padhathi with the support of the Haritha Keralam Mission.
The Meenachil-Meenanthara-Kodoor River re-linking project in Kottayam had initiated similar steps to provide weed stalks to natural fibre-manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu.
