VANDERBIJLPARK – While residents, organisations, and businesses operating on the banks of the Vaal River worked tirelessly to remove the water lettuce since the outbreak, Rand Water finally came to the party and played its role.
This comes after the water utility visited Stonehaven on Vaal on Thursday, February 15, to launch an integrated approach to help in the fight against the invasive alien plants that threatened the river.
Despite several plans to remove the plants, the state organ released the weevils and hoppers in the river to halt the growth of water lettuce.
Water lettuce is a poisonous and highly invasive free-floating freshwater weed that is found in water bodies and slow-moving waterways in warm regions.
Residents gathered at the venue to listen in to an expert presentation on the implemented process.
The much-anticipated measure was presented by Dr Leslie Hoy, Manager of Environmental Services at Rand Water, the integrated plan, Prof Julie Coetzee from the Rhodes Centre for Biological Control, and Mbuyiswa Makhubela, General Manager of Corporate Services.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster on the sidelines of the event, Dr Hoy explained the reasons for the approach.
“The problem is extensive on the water body. As of last week, there were about 179 hectares of coverage of the water weed on the surface of the Vaal Barrage. It’s a smallish amount but it’s big enough to make an impact. The challenge is that the water lettuce has impacted the community at large and people haven’t been able to get on their boats and conduct their business,” he said.
Hoy said the water lettuce is a floating mess that changes throughout the day and the week compared to the wind.
“The other way of removing the weeds is physical removal, which the community has already engaged with. Our General Authorisation allows us to implement other methods which will be working on for this project,” he added.
“Precautions to implementing the processes have been taken, and the guidance has been offered to us by DFFE, that’s where we are taking our leaf from. The process won’t kill the plants upright, it will kill them over time and the insects released will eat and kill them over time,” he said.
Hoy said they will engage communities living on the river banks and educate them on how one prevent their reintroduction.
Makhubela said they formed an informal structure to monitor the progress of the removal of the water lettuce.
“We working with the community and having meetings every two weeks after forming an informal forum to track the progress. Today will rate as one of the best days because we are doing good for a change and we have a good story to tell. Yes there are still results we looking forward to, this cooperation shows commitment. Keeping Barrage clean is our responsibility and lifelong commitment. We will continue to be on-site and actively monitoring progress,” he said.
