Water hyacinth halts trade in Lake Victoria

KISUMU, KENYA: More than 2,000 tonnes of fertilizer imported by Uganda is among cargo worth millions of shillings lying at the Kisumu port as water hyacinth chokes trade on Lake Victoria.

The shipment consolidated since January cannot leave warehouses at the port because the berthing bay is inaccessible even to vessels with carrying capacities of about 10 standard containers (10 Twenty-Foot Equivalents), according to the port manager Mwalimu Disi.

Cooking oil, soap and sugar going into the neighbouring countries are part of grounded goods.

"Nothing is happening here, it is a logistical nightmare. Trailers and trucks keep bringing in goods but nothing is going out. Some traders are already resorting to have their consignments moved by road," he said on Thursday.

Proliferation of the water weed which has carpeted the port has crippled operations, pulling activities to a halt.

In February, a ferry wagon from Tanzania got stuck in water hyacinth a few metres away from the harbor for nearly a week with its crew inside. It was coming to collect cement.

Mr Disi said vessels were recording heavy fueling consumption as they navigate carpets of the water weed, incurring unprecedented expenses.

"Those that have to come do so with a lot of difficulty, in January we saw a vessel take 12 hours to dock at the port in a distance of less than a kilometre due heavy presence of hyacinth," Disi said.

He said from an average of just two ships docking at the port daily late last year when the hyacinth spread begun, the number thinned to one in January and none in the last two months.

During normal operations the port receives up to four vessels daily moving over 4,000 tonnes of goods transported to other East African countries including Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

This low capacity is an insignificant fraction of its potential to handle 60,000 tonnes of cargo.

In its heydays, fueled largely by the vibrant old Nairobi-Kisumu metre gauge railway, the port handled vessels with capacities as large as 44 TEUs like the grounded MV Uhuru.

Tourism and fishing prospects have also been dulled by the stubborn weed. Boat rides and cruises synonymous with tourism along the lake have suffered a knock back. Access to tourist attraction on the lake like Ndere and Rusinga islands have been hindered.

The fisher folk and those practicing cage farming on the lake are also grappling with negative effect of the water weed.

A Sh81 million machine bought to help in the fight against the weed has been lying at the Kisumu port due to what officials from the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Program attribute to mechanical deficiencies of the expensive machinery.