Alien invades South African Peninsula, Zorro the Hippo escapes
Under yet another name – This is neither a scam nor a fraud. Water hyacinth, originally from South America, is considered the world’s worst invasive aquatic weed and has caused damage estimated at billions of dollars throughout Africa.
But Cape Town is trying various techniques to keep part of the sewerage works – correctly, the wastewater treatment plant – free of the plant, including a bio-control experiment.
It appears to be true that Zorro the hippo, who escaped from adjoining Rondevlei nature reserve in February and took up residence in one of the pans, is also hampering water hyacinth control efforts.
The issue was raised recently by birder John Graham, who reported on the CapeBirdNet email forum that he was “sad to see that the nature reserve portion of the works seems to be in a state of deterioration”.
“Four of the ponds I drove past are totally choked with hyacinth and it seems to be ringing most of the shoreline of (pan) S2 and so presumably will shortly also be choking this pan. There also appears to be a significant volume of hyacinth on Pan 5, north of the main works.”
Fellow birder Jill Mortimer echoed his concerns: “I was there a few days ago and felt the same. Between the hyacinth and the fishermen, there wasn’t much space for birds, let alone birders.”
Asked to comment, the city’s manager of wastewater treatment, Kevin Samson, said the excessive growth of water hyacinth was not a new problem.
“Zorro the hippo is still a problem. The pond is fenced in but until the animal is removed hyacinth cannot be removed from the pond.”
The operational manager at the works was in regular contact with the city’s nature conservation officials and with the Cape Bird Club, Samson said.
Dalton Gibbs, southern area manager for the city’s environmental resource management department, said the hyacinth at Strandfontein was well established in two large ponds.
“The extent of the infestation is presently beyond the resources that are available to eradicate the invasive plant in these pans.
“Hyacinth was detected on a further five ponds and has been removed.”