As part of efforts to ease inland waterway transportation in Lagos, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has deployed massive swamp devil machines to clear pervasive water hyacinth vegetation clogging navigable water channels in Ebutte areas of Ikorodu.
The project, which is ongoing, is a direct and proactive response by the federal regulatory agency to calls by boat operators and waterway passengers in the region.
According to a press statement issued by NIWA Lagos Area office today, the development is strategic to keeping Lagos waterways free from encumbrances and a headline efforts to assure boat operators and water transportation stakeholders of their safety.
Lagos Area Manager of NIWA, Engr Sarat Braimah, 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 NIWA environmental experts will be on detailed look out for the mystery weeds to help arrest their impact before they could overrun the navigable channels in lagos.
Braimah 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 extant safety regulations.
The water hyacinth weeds rear up its fangs from October to late December, every year, a natural phenomenal occurrence that impedes boating activities and aggressively disruptive of fishing activities on inland waterways across the country.