Killer weeds strangling Africa

I’d like to thank Rupi Mangat for an eye-opening article on the parthenium weed (“Invasion of the killer weed from South America,” The EastAfrican, August 17-23).

I’ve been working on fighting Typha and Water Hyacinth for some years now, but you’ve got weeds I’ve never heard of.

Getting weeds under control is the central task in fighting climate degradation. Lakes and “lake effect” rains are a central part of the Earth’s cooling system. It is the Typha in the Lake Chad basin that drives the desertification of Northn Africa.

The silt it has deposited separates the lake from the aquifers, so that they do not replenish each other in alternating seasons.

The eastern tributaries were conquered first, then the lake itself, and now the western tributaries are under attack.

A similar story appears to be the case for the Nile tributaries, though which weeds are dominant is less clear from this distance. The problem is once again larger than I thought.

Stephen Klaber
Via e-mail