Lonehill Dam breathes again after months being choked by Kariba weed
Last November, Lonehill Dam vanished beneath an aggressive green blanket, Kariba weed, a foreign invader that spread faster than it could be removed.
It all began quietly in November last year, just another early summer in the area, until something strange started happening at Lonehill Dam.
A thick, green carpet began spreading across the water, inch by inch, until it swallowed the entire surface.
What looked like just another weed turned out to be something far more sinister: the invasive Kariba weed, an aquatic fern, native to south-eastern Brazil, and it didn’t just arrive, it conquered.
Also read: Lonehill resident targeted in water scam after months without access
Kariba weed is a free-floating plant that does not attach to the soil, instead, it remains buoyant on the surface of a body of water. The fronds are 0.5–4cm long and broad, with a bristly surface caused by the hair-like strands that join at the end to form eggbeater shapes.
What followed was months of frustration, desperation, and environmental concern. Every attempt to clear the weed seemed fruitless. Authorities would remove large portions of it, only to return the next morning and find the dam just as overrun.
The resilience of the plant baffled even seasoned experts. One moment that captured the hopelessness of the situation was when environmentalist David Mavundlela, a man known for his calm resolve, stood at the edge of the dam with his hands on his head, speechless, overwhelmed by the aggressive persistence of the Kariba weed.
Also read: Lonehill Dam’s foreign plant clean up comes to a halt due to lack of equipment
“I have done my research and found that the equipment to remove the plant completely will cost roughly R150 000. This is going to be a specialised boat with a pipe, like the one they use for cleaning swimming pools, but a bigger one,” said Movundlela at the time.
After months of wrangling and pleas for assistance, a massive aquatic weed harvester machine capable of doing what human hands alone could not was brought into action on May 5.
Currently, the dam gleams under the sun once more. Birds skim joyfully across the surface. However, the battle isn’t entirely over. Ward 94 councillor David Foley said the next step would be to purify the water of the dam to prevent another outbreak.
Read more: Industrial harvester arrives to tackle Kariba weed at Lonehill Dam
Foley joined Ian Ross from the Bioremediation team on May 27 and took samples of the water, which will be analysed to determine its current state.
They also put five buckets of eco-friendly chemicals in the dam. “This is going to first of all purify the water and it’s going to loosen the sludge at the bottom, the sediment, so it’ll lift to the top and dissipate, and it’s also going to ensure that the nitrates are removed out of the dam that’s making the Kariba weed spread so quickly,” said Foley.
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