The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) announced on Thursday that it has deployed its massive Swamp Devil machines to combat and clear the pervasive water hyacinth vegetation that has clogged navigable water channels in the Ebutte areas of Ikorodu in Lagos State.
The ongoing project is a direct and proactive response by the Federal Water Transportation Regulatory Agency to calls by boat operators.
It is strategic to keep Lagos waterways free from such encumbrances and highlights efforts to assure boat operators and water transportation stakeholders of their safety.
Engineer (Dr.) Sarat Lara Braimah, Lagos Area Manager of NIWA, who led the Water Hyacinth expedition team, disclosed that NIWA has mapped out strategic plans to tackle the menace.
She added that a special team of the agency’s environmental experts will be on a detailed lookout for the mystery weeds to help mitigate their impact before they overrun the navigable channels in Lagos.
She appealed to organised boat operators and water users to report any sighting of the weeds to the NIWA Lagos office, calling on stakeholders to be circumspect and obey all existing safety regulations.
Water hyacinth weeds usually emerge between October and late December every year, a natural phenomenon that hinders boating activities and aggressively disrupts fishing activities on inland waterways across the country.
