Thousands of people in northwest Ethiopia marched to Abay River and Lake Tana as part of the “Save Lake Tana” movement to remove invasive water hyacinth by hand. The free-floating, water-thirsty perennial is swallowing the northeast shores of Lake Tana, impacting both aquatic habitat health and local fishermen. Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile and the largest lake in Ethiopia, and is used for transport, tourism, hydroelectric power generation, ecological conservation and fishery operations. Although numerous attempts have been made to eradicate the weed by hand over the last several years, the hyacinth continues to come back. Currently, different solutions are being investigated by Ethiopia’s Environment, Forest and Wildlife Protection and Development Authority to eradicate the plant. For the full story see https://news.mongabay.com/2017/09/community-pulls-water-thirsty-invasiv…