KOCHI: While it’s a sight to behold, the overcrowding of pervasive weeds like water hyacinth are clogging most of the water bodies of Kochi and its outskirts of late, hampering activities like transportation, fishing and recreation.
Following “frequent service disruptions” due to these pervasive aquatic weeds, the Kochi Water Metro is now planning to procure a weed harvester to clear the sprawling mats of water hyacinth that clog its routes like Vyttila-Kakkanad and High Court-Fort Kochi sections.
“We’re planning to procure an amphibian weed harvester/cutting machine. This is after a series of consultations on how to overcome the weed issue that’s disrupting boat services at a time when we’re looking to scale up the operations. However, the challenge is to dispose off the collected weed,” said Sajan P John, chief operating officer, KWML.
The Kochi corporation recently purchased a weed harvester using the Cochin Smart Mission Ltd (CSML) funds. The successful trial of the machine, acquired at a cost of Rs 13.9 crore, which also includes its operation and maintenance for five years, was carried out recently.
“What we require is a bigger weed harvester. The one with the corporation is a smaller and can be deployed only in small water bodies like canals. However, our boat routes pass through rivers and backwaters. We’ve initiated discussions with various firms to avail the CSR funds for purchasing the machine,” the official pointed out.
Both the Water Metro and the SWTD (State Water Transport Department) boats have been severely affected by the pervasive weeds resulting in at least one boat developing technical glitch daily. While floating JCBs have been deployed at terminals like Vyttila, they have little effect.
“The issue has severely affected our boat operations both in Ernakulam and Alappuzha. The weeds would be sucked in by the engine and get stuck in the loop, disrupting water-cooling system and resulting in engine overheat. Yesterday two boats in Ernakulam developed technical snag, with its head and injector parts getting damaged. Today morning too, the services were affected, leading to protests. But we managed to restore operations by 11.30am,” said a senior SWTD official.
Bane to boon
The disposal of huge quantities of weeds collected from waterbodies is a headache. The corporation, which recently acquired a weed harvester having a lifting capacity of 400kg, plans to convert the weeds into value-added products such as refuse-derived fuel or green manure or compost. “Instead of just dumping the collected weeds, why can’t they be used for a beneficial purpose? That was our thought,” a senior health official said.
The corporation is mulling to avail the services of an Angamaly-based start-up for churning out the value-added products. “The start-up, which has tied up with the Cochin University, has registered under the industries department. The weeds will be dried up and used for manufacturing the products. The dried up raw material forms 10% of the input, i.e, if we process 10 tonnes of collected weeds, we can obtain 1 tonne of dried raw material,” the official pointed out.
A weed harvester uses a floating boom to contain and transport weeds/debris without interfering with the river flow. Collected weeds and debris are stored in the machine’s holding area for later disposal. Utilising its amphibious capabilities, the machine can transfer the collected material to the shore, allowing for efficient off-loading without another equipment.