Magalies Water said that another milestone has been reached this week as hyacinth coverage is around 10%.

Dead and dying hyacinth covers only about 10% of Hartbeespoort Dam

“Magalies Water as an Implementing Agent (IA) on behalf of the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) for the Water Resource Management Plan in the upper Crocodile West River Catchment and Hartbeespoort Dam, continues to make strides in addressing the long-standing challenges of poor raw water quality, and increasing hyacinth growth in the catchment. To achieve these objectives, the water utility has registered substantial progress in improving the quality of raw water and curbing the growth rate of hyacinth by meticulously implementing its ten-point strategic plan announced at the beginning of the project,” said spokesperson David Magae.
“The primary goal of this initiative is to develop an adaptive integrated Water Resource Management Plan that aims to safeguard and improve water access and quality for all users, review and implement the Hartbeespoort Dam integrated biological remediation programme and implement the local Hartbeespoort Dam resource management plan.”
According to Mage, the objectives are, among others, to manage alien invasive species, determine and monitor water quality, track pollution and implement hyacinth and algae remediation.
“The eradication of water hyacinth is the primary objective for Magalies Water. In the past four months, water hyacinth coverage has surpassed 25%, prompting focused efforts from Magalies Water to manage and reduce this encroachment. The significant increase in water hyacinth biomass can be attributed to the extreme meteorological conditions experienced from September to December 2024. Prolonged high temperatures, decreased dam levels, facilitated enhanced light penetration into the aquatic environment, thus activating the germination processes within the hyacinth seed bank at the bottom of the dam,” he said.
“Subsequently, substantial rainfall contributed to the upstream transfer of nutrients into the Hartbeespoort Dam, further exacerbating the favourable conditions for water hyacinth growth.”
He said Magalies Water made contingency plans to enhance hyacinth removal capacity in response to the situation. This involved mobilising extra machinery and manual labour to remove the hyacinth.
“This outcome is a testament to the effective integration of various methodologies over the past several months,” Magae said.
The Centre of Biological Control (CBC) at Rhodes University’s biological agents have killed off most of the hyacinth and the bugs are leaving the plants. A satellite image on Monday showed coverage of about 8%.