Malawi was not picturesque enough for the anonymous European settler suspected of importing water hyacinth a century ago. Now the legacy of that decision is all too clear as power cuts ravage the economy.
As mats of weed flow down the Shire River, Malawi's electricity stops, crippling industry and costing the country hundreds of thousands of US dollars a day.
Stretched in bunches more than 150km upstream from the Nkula hydroelectric station was one such culprit, floating vegetation never meant for Africa. It is not hyacinth, but a highly invasive plant spawned by the battle against the hyacinth.
"The vegetation is getting worse. It's blocked the whole barrage," said Wales Kalombola, a technician from the Electricity Supply Corporation.
He stood on a dam in Liwonde, known locally as a barrage, which regulates the river for the Nkula plant. But the weeds block the flow. Every day a crane hauls out tonnes of the gunk, and four trucks shuttle it to a site for burning. A second crane is due this month, said Kalombola, as are a further six trucks.
The authorities are considering buying a floating bulldozer and harvester from Aquarius Systems, a US firm that battles the weeds.
"They're struggling. It's coming down river faster than they can remove it," said Jane Dauffenbach, the firm's president.
Disruptions of hydroelectric power, which account for most of Malawi's 355MW, cost US$335 million a year, one-third of GDP, says the energy ministry.
Soil erosion and silt clog the rivers, as does hyacinth -- a bitter twist because for a time the evil weed seemed vanquished.
The floating mass that can double in size in a fortnight proliferated across the Shire until the mid-1990s. Blocking sunlight and sucking oxygen and nitrogen from the water, the plant increased acidity and damaged algae and plankton.
Unchecked it would have been an ecological disaster for Lake Malawi, the third biggest in Africa. Fishing villages with no alternative source of income faced ruin.
"In some areas 60 percent of the beach was no longer accessible," said Alexander Bulirani, deputy director of fisheries.
"And crocodiles hide in the hyacinth, so it wasn't safe for women to collect water," Bulirani said.
The weed came from Brazil and so, with help from Britain's department for international development, did its nemesis: Neochetina aerchornae and Neochetina bruchi, two beetles that eat only hyacinth. Some 500,000 bugs were released.
The hyacinth stood no chance, but Malawi has found a malign side to the weevils -- feeding on the decaying hyacinth leaves and branches has come a new breed of hippo grass and papyrus, more aggressive than traditional vegetation, said Patrick Phiri, a district fisheries officer in Mangochi.
"Just as we were winning the battle against hyacinth we realized this problem of secondary growth," he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including