Some called it a wonder. Others described it a as mystery. Some others said it was a sign from the gods.
“The aliens are coming from the underground,” one said, while another, obviously a Christian, declared, “God is using this to warn us that our sins are too many! He is using this sign to tell us to repent before He destroys the world.”
It meant different things to different people.
Since last Saturday morning, many Lagos and Ogun residents, motorists and passers-by have been trooping to the Kara area along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway — a 2.5-kilometre walk from Berger Bus stop, Lagos — to catch a glimpse of a section of the Ogun River which was suddenly overgrown with plants known as water hyacinths.
Experts said the incident was caused by a heavy storm, thus creating a dense layer of sand over the river and making it possible for people to walk over.
It was an occurrence many people, including residents and traders in the area, had never witnessed since the beginning of time.
“We started to observe as the plants grew on the surface of the river on Friday morning. The process was gradual. By afternoon, the water couldn’t move freely again. More plants started to grow,” Ismaila Mohammed, a cattle rearer in the area, told Saturday PUNCH on Tuesday evening. “By Saturday, all we could see was a river which had turned to dry land in about two days. I have been here for more than seven years and I have never seen a thing like this all my life.”
He added that what was shocking to him was that the second section of the river was still overflowing with water.
Many other people like Mohammed have also never seen it happen before anywhere — a body of river being zapped by some green plants which came out of nowhere.
Bewildered by the “strange” occurrence, the area has since turned to a tourist centre of sort to many people.
Many motorists parked their cars along the expressway to watch the scene; some schoolchildren could not hide their excitement as they trooped to the area after closing from school; stunt-proving motorcyclists rode on the vegetation; cameras were flashing from the hands of everyone.
Some people, who believed it was a wonder from God, immediately turned the river-turned-dry land to a prayer ground, while some people laid mats on it, turning it to a recreation ground.
“This is amazing!” a fair-complexioned woman exclaimed as she stepped out of her grey Ford SUV to join the crowd of ‘tourists’ on the bridge.
Wonder to some, worry to others
No one could have predicted that the Kara River would turn to dry land in about 48 hours.
Baffled by this occurrence, Kelechi Obi, one of the scores of people who were at the scene, told Saturday PUNCH that the incident had strengthened his faith in God.
Describing it as a wonder, he said, “I am astonished at this incident. If it is not wonder, what shall we call it? Why didn’t any agency predict it would happen? How can a body of river suddenly turn to dry land? Where were the plants before? Were they hiding or what? How were they planted? How did they grow suddenly? These are some of the many questions cropping up in my mind.
“This tells me that anything is possible. God can turn around a man’s situation in few seconds. This is God at work. This incident has strengthened my faith in God that nothing is impossible for Him to do. In the Bible, God turned the Red Sea to dry land for the Israelites in just few seconds. He is doing it again in our time to prove to us He is God.”
A man, simply called Taiwo, who was travelling from Ibadan, described it as a mystery.
“I read about it in the newspaper on Sunday and I decided I was going to branch here while returning to Lagos. I have been travelling on this expressway for many years and I know about the river. Seeing it dry up is mysterious,” he said.
Taiwo said such an occurrence was meant to prove to people that God was mysterious.
“This is the period of fasting and as a Muslim, I believe that this is a proof that God
“Some people were saying we should not ride on it, but we proved to them that there was nothing wrong that was going to happen. We are not afraid. It is no more water body again, it is dry land,” he said.
Our correspondent learned some canoe passengers almost drowned on Saturday while the plants were rapidly growing on the water body.
According to Ijaya, “There were five passengers in the canoe; they were all meat sellers. As they were on the water, the plants grew so rapidly that they got the canoe stuck and almost made it sink.
“Thank God the driver quickly came down and held on to the plants and waded through the vegetation onto the other side. By then, some people from the other side threw a rope and pulled the canoe back to safety. They almost got drowned. We are happy nobody died.”
A suited man drove past speedily in a tinted black Mercedes SUV, then suddenly slowed down, stopped his car, reversed and parked along the expressway.
“O my God! What is this?” his mouth uttered as he stepped out of his vehicle, then added, “This is indeed a miracle. Who could ever have imagined this happening just some few days ago? This is amazing.”
While it is amazing, mysterious, miraculous, or wonderful to some people, some residents and traders at Kara told Saturday PUNCH they were worried about the development.
Prior to the incident, the river once served as a source of water to them in their businesses. But now, they may face the challenge of water scarcity, except water starts flowing again to the river.
A middle-aged woman, Christy Egbu, sat outside her shop in the evening of Tuesday, peeling some tubers of cassava which she would later process to fufu, a smooth white staple food eaten with soup.
She said, “I have never seen this happen all my life. It is a mystery and it is worrying. We usually wash the cassavas after peeling them. A lot of water is needed to wash them thoroughly. It’s one of the reasons we’re resident in this area. We also fetch water from the river to wash our clothes and kitchen utensils.
“But since Saturday when the river was covered with the plants, we have been using rain water to wash. Thank God it’s rainy season. We have some buckets filled with rainwater. If not for the rain, it would have been so difficult for us. We hope that the river will flow back.”
Canoe owners used to ply the river, but woke up on Saturday morning to see their route being blocked by the vegetation.
“The canoes are resting now,” said Egbu, “We simply walk over the vegetation now to cross to the other side. Before, if we were to go to the Kara market to buy meat or sell food to our customers, we used the canoes. They’re resting now.”
Esther, a food vendor in the area, said she used to wash plates and pots with water from the river.
“Now, that’s no longer possible. But thank God for the rain. However, I don’t use rainwater or the river water to cook. I buy water from the meruwas (people who sell water). I too was so scared when I saw green plants on the river on Saturday because I had never seen something like this in my life,” she said, adding, “I hope the river will flow back, though. It’s less stressful when you readily have a water source to wash and do some other things.”
A butcher at the Kara abattoir, simply identified as Adamu, told our correspondent it had been pretty difficult for him and his colleagues to thoroughly wash meat since Saturday.
He said, “We normally use the river to wash meat after slaughtering cows or goats. It was a steady source. We didn’t have to worry about water supply. Now, our water source is gone. We are managing to use rainwater, but it doesn’t rain every day.
“Our prayer is that before the rain stops, the river should have started flowing again. We have never witnessed a thing like this since we’re here. It came suddenly. There was even no sign. An abattoir needs a steady source of water supply to wash meat. The water must come back.”
Adamu’s colleague, Mohammed, also from Kano State
Their cows, obviously used to drinking water from the river, stooped low first to drink from the little mass of water that still remained, then marched on the vegetation, feeding along on it as they went.
However, the rearers wouldn’t allow them to go so far. The farther they went, the more dangerous it could be as there could still be some water underneath the vegetation, one of the rearers, Idris Muhammad, said.
“This development is both good and bad. Now we don’t need to go very far to feed our cattle. Now we have a mini grazing reserve. However, we still need to source for water for them. Not a problem too much, though,” he said.
What exactly are the green plants?
Not a mystery or sign. Geology experts said the plants on the Kara river are known as Eichhornia crassipes, commonly known as water hyacinths.
They are an aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin, and are often considered a highly problematic invasive species outside its native range.
They are a free-floating perennial aquatic plant native to tropical and sub-tropical South America with broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves which may rise above the surface of the water as much as one metre in height.
One of the fastest growing plants known, water hyacinths , reproduce primarily by way of runners or stolons, which eventually form daughter plants. Each plant can produce about 3,000 seeds each year, and these seeds can remain viable for more than 28 years.
Some water hyacinths can grow up to 2 to 5 metres a day in some sites and can double their population in just few days.
Their invasiveness is related to their ability to clone themselves, and when not controlled, they can cover an entire body mass entirely.
They dramatically impact water flow, block sunlight from reaching native aquatic plants, and starve the water of oxygen, often killing any fish or other animals in the water.
The plants also create a prime habitat for mosquitos and often invade bodies of water that have been impacted by human activities.
Though they can be controlled physically, chemically and biologically, the spread of the invasive alien species is neither easy to manage nor easy to reverse, threatening not only biodiversity, but also economic development and human wellbeing, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
However, as dangerous as they could be, water hyacinths can be harnessed for environmental benefit and renewable energy production, according to a study by the Economy and Environment Programme for Southeast Asia.
In a study conducted by Zanxin Wang and Jin Wan from the School of Development Studies at Yunnan University in China, the weed can be used for the production of biogas.
However, there are needs for institutional arrangements for coordination, finance and drive for the development of a network of such biogas plants.
Meanwhile, Dr. Folorunsho Adetayo, Department of Geosciences, University of Lagos, had told Sunday PUNCH that the rainy season could have contributed to the appearance of the plants.
“The government, however, needs to remove the plants because if allowed to stay long, it can become toxic to plants and animals, including human beings,” he said.
Keep off, experts warn ‘tourists’
The Ogun State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Bolaji Oyeleye, has advised people who have turned the Kara river scene to a tourist centre to desist from doing so, adding that excavation of the weed would soon start.
“Water hyacinth is not new; it simply means the water body is low at this point in time. People are not supposed to walk on the place. It allows dangerous animals to inhabit the place. River Ogun is important to us. It drains into the Lagoon. We can’t have this for a long time because it is going to affect a lot of things,” he said on Channels TV.
In a similar manner, the Lagos State Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Mr. Adebowale Akinsanya, said in a statement that it was dangerous for residents to walk on the dried Og
