or. Danielle Petterson | Apr 8, 2019 | News, Water, Water quality, Water sources | 0 comments. With the Hartbeespoort Dam plagued by the dreaded water hyacinth we look at ways to monetise this plant in a country with high unemployment and where access to finance for entrepreneurs without existing assets or revenue is virtually nonexistent. The result was an explosion of cyanobacteria, which had never been prevalent in Hartbeespoort Dam prior to this. The vast majority of Hartebeespoort dam’s surface can now be mistaken for a lush green field in that the water hyacinth has multiplied and is so dense that it no longer resembles the dam that is once was. First water hyacinth choked the surface. {{current_weather.dt | momentjs( atts.date )}}, WHO team in North West to reinforce Covid-19 response, Mike Bolhuis will guard Hartbeespoort Dam’s hippo. Water Hyacinth is a floating perennial plant that is native to the Amazon and has spread to much of the southern united states. This figure excludes the totals removed by the various estates, shoreline owners and working for water teams around the dam. ... Water Hyacinth in the Hartbeespoort Dam … Eutrophication in the Hartbeespoort Dam has manifested itself through the excessive algae bloom and water hyacinth infestation. Massive growth of water hyacinth deteriorating the water quality of Hartbeespoort Dam Hartbeespoort Dam has been renowned for its poor water quality since the mid twentieth century. Yearly, phosphate input is around 200 tons. Clearing the water hyacinth is an extremely costly endeavour, one that is being undertaken almost entirely by … Invasive hyacinth plants are harvested at Hartbeespoort Dam … This weed is said to double its size in the space of five days. The Hartbeespoort Dam Rehabilitation Steering Committee has, during this phase of the removals, received little to no support from the Department of Water Affairs, which has given the committee until December this year to make an impact. Thereafter, the department will consider poisoning the invasive plant. The plan going forward is to have a small mass-rearing facility set up at Redstone Estate by the Harties Foundation and the CBC, to mass-rear the biological control agents for regular release on the dam throughout the growing season.”. We decided last minute to book and go for a speed boat ride on the Hartebeespoort dam at R400 per couple. Hartbeespoort Dam: Oh dear! Jump to. Magalies Park, Hartbeespoort Picture: Water Hyacinth Problem In Hartebeespoort Dam - Check out Tripadvisor members' 2,664 candid photos and videos. Sign Up. [12] [13] [14] The Dam suffers severe eutrophication , in 2003 resulting from high concentrations of phosphates and nitrates in the Crocodile River, the major inflow. “As a result, there is less food for the insects at present and we should expect a significantly reduced population of biological control agents going into the warmer months. The hyacinth! Massive growth of water hyacinth deteriorating the water quality of Hartbeespoort Dam Hartbeespoort Dam has been renowned for its poor water quality since the mid twentieth century. The water quality in the Hartbeespoort Dam … The dam was our headquarters and between us, we spent thousands of happy hours on it, unaware of the deadly danger in its water. According to the Hartbeespoort Dam Rehabilitation Steering Committee, the invasive plant, which doubles in size every two weeks or so, covers 40 per cent of the dam. Arthur Crewe, NSRI Hartbeespoort Dam station commander, said: At 10h45, Thursday, 24 December, NSRI Hartbeespoort Dam duty crew were activated following eye-witness reports of a vulture appearing to be trapped in dense Hyacinth on Hartbeespoort Dam near to the Randburg Bridge. Water hyacinth is an invasive non-native weed from South America, that has been on Hartbeespoort Dam since the mid-1960s. Water hyacinth is an aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin, and […] Hyacinths Removal Project – Hartbeespoort Dam Since April 2017 in Excess of 500 000 tons of Wet-Weight Hyacinths have been successfully removed from Hartbeespoort dam by various harvesting teams. Photo: NSRI Four-month-old vulture trapped in hyacinth rescued from Hartbeespoort Dam Further nutrients are being released from lake sediments adding to the phosphate excess. The CBC will provide scientific and infrastructure support to the Harties Foundation to ensure the sustainable control of the water hyacinth on the dam, and will also investigate other places and organisations to manage more mass-rearing facilities with support from the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries.For queries please contact CBC at cbcinfo@ru.ac.za. There has been a long history of control of this weed including herbicide application, mechanical and manual removal and biological control. We take our hats off to the men who gave the Hartbeespoort community something to be proud of. “Water hyacinth in Hartbeespoort is a serious problem for us and sometimes we can’t operate,” observes Tidimalo Makhubalo, a manager and senior skipper with Harties Watersports Centre, which runs ferry boats, speedboats, jet-skis and luxury cruises for … Hartbeespoort Dam is a hypertrophic impoundment in South Africa, with large blooms of the potentially toxic blue-green alga Microcystis aeruginosa and an extensive anaerobic zone of up to 40% of the total volume during summer months. ALSO READ: Hartbeespoort water birds in crisis “It was very costly, but there are only two ways to remove the hyacinth – mechanical or biological. Yearly, phosphate input is around 200 tons. However, much of the success can be attributed to a small planthopper called Megamelus scutellaris which, like the water hyacinth, is … The facts are : 1) The METSI A ME programme managed by Rand Water on behalf of Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), which was aimed at cleaning up the dam in general was suspended at the beginning of the year. The aerial total phosphorus and total nitrogen loading rates are in the order of 20 g/m 2 /y and 128 g/m 2 /y respectively. This is due to the large size of the dam, the rapid growth rate of the weeds, and the ongoing water quality crisis.”, Miller said it is possible that the insect populations may have declined as a result of the decrease in water hyacinth due to the effectiveness of the biological control programme. Hartbeespoort Dam water quality is hyper-eutrophic due to continuous inflow of excess phosphate from sewage and via sediments. It prefers warmer climates and has board, thick, and glossy leaves that are 10-20 cm across. 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