Benoni Sea Scouts have prepared the Homestead Dam in Benoni for their smooth sailing by working with the City to remove the hyacinth infestation. The lakes and dams around the Benoni area have experienced growing water hyacinth. Water hyacinth is the world’s worst invasive aquatic weed, and it grows rapidly due to the highly nutrient enriched state of the waters bodies.
To reduce the hyacinth infestation in water bodies, the City has been working with the Benoni Sea Scouts, led by Leon Clulee, to keep the hyacinth at bay through physical removal and the application of herbicides. “We are a community passionate about water sports and as such we take it upon ourselves to maintain the dam working with the City’s officials so as to allow us to carry on with our activities. Another thing that makes us to be eager to keep the dam clean is the issue of safety. We constantly have to insure that the dams are free of foreign objects that may harm the scouts while inside the dam,” Leon said.
The scouts work hard to keep the dam cleaned for them to host their weekly activities such as canoeing, sailing, rowing, paddling and annual scouts’ competition called Kotinki and other related festivities. The life span of the hyacinth is 20 years, which makes it hard to remove as it often grows due to the nutrients that comes from waste water spillages into the dams.