it has been decades of Africa's most destructive aquatic weed this is due to the impact it has on the ecosystem and the millions of rands it takes to contain the hartebeesport dam in the northwest province is one area that has seen an increase in the growth of this plant water hyacinth is classified as an alien invasive species it is native to the amazon basin and was first recorded in the country in the 1900s but why is this plant such an issue to find out more I spoke to Linda gongs burrow a researcher and lecturer at the water research node at Monash South Africa problem with it is it tends to reproduce very quickly and so once you have one plant it spreads its seeds and you suddenly end up with ten plants a hundred plants a thousand plants in a very short period of time the free-floating client can grow anywhere between 100 millimetres to one meter and heights the water hyacinth can double its population every 11 to 18 days the plant rapidly forms dense vegetation maps which can affect the use of the dam it can cause a physical barrier even in terms of boats and recreational activities if you had a dam for example and your dam was working on a turbine system and you wanted to release water from the dam and these plants get stuck up in the turbines you know that can cause massive problems in terms of blocking of turbines and dam equipment the plants prize and hypertrophic or highly nutrient water bodies such as the heart abuse for dam controlling the hyacinth cost the country millions of rands per annum in 2007 the Department of Water says implemented the hartebeesport dam remediation program also known as may see our name the aim of this program was to address imbalances and unhealthy bylaw Chuco conditions of the dam part of the plan included containing the hyacinth however the project has since been halted and the Sun clear winner to resume meanwhile the heart abuse program is still enjoyed by visitors and locals alike as the hyacinth continues to multi-axis like grooving Ireland just like going all the way around the way around and it's beautiful but I guess it does some damage you