Saving Lake Tana

I traveled to lake Tana on August 2017 to report on a march that calls to Save Lake Tana.

Lake Tana is the largest lake in Ethiopia.On 2010/2011 it was discovered that 20,000ha of the water body and its tributaries were covered by water hyacinth (Scientific name Eichhornia Crassipes), a weed that is a threat to both the lake and the biodiversity within it. The weed attained a peak infestation of 40,000ha during the next five years.

In the past five years, manual labor that would have had a value of more than 1.5milion USD in cost has been invested in an effort to eradicate the weed from the lake and it’s areas. Farmers and activists had been involved on many similar marches. However, due to the nature of the seed to study dormant as long as 30 years and amount to 4000-5000 per plant, it had been impossible to eradicate it once and overall.

Water hyacinth is threatening different water bodies globally and countries found in Africa, Europe, North America, Australia and Asia are affected by it.