GEF, UNDP train Bayelsa community on sustainable use of water hyacinth

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and other development partners have began the training of indigenes of Zarama Community in Bayelsa State on the sustainable use of water hyacinth.

The training, which began on Monday at the Ministry of Environment conference hall in Yenagoa with 25 participants, will last two weeks.

Organisers of the training, which is being attended by youths, men and women is targeted at training them on how they can use water hyacinth to made handicraft, among others.

GEF and UNDP are implementing the five-year biodiversity conservation Programme of the Biodiversity Conservation Project (NDBP) in the Niger Delta.

It is also being done in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment in the participating states, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the communities.

Declaring the training open in Yenagoa, Programme Coordinator, Mathew Dore, said the programme was initiated to teach the communities how to turn their wastes into wealth.

He said water hyacinth had been a environmental nuisance and a waste, which makes transportation and fishing difficult along the waterways, but said experts have devised ways to put them to economic use.

“We are here to kick start the training on sustainable utilisation of the water hyacinth. Water hyacinth, as you know, is ravaging Niger Delta waters, it constitutes an environmental nuisance and makes transportation and fishing difficult in the rivers,” he stated.