A threat to public health is in the making in Bayfield, St Philip, and residents have put out an SOS.
It is an area they affectionately call Pondview, which is somewhat of a mini-park with benches and shade trees over-looking a large picturesque pond beside the road. In the last year, the pond was invaded by one of the world's three most serious aquatic weeds - the aggressive water lettuce (Pistia stratiodes), which has now covered about seven-eighths of the pond.
"If it stays like this we will soon start getting mosquitoes," a worried resident said.
As the weed takes over the pond it is keeping the tilapia at bay. The tilapia used to keep any mosquito larvae in check. The pond was also the watering hole for world travelling migratory birds, ducks, and coots.
"We don't see the coots or foreign birds as often as before. We used to hear the coots calling at 5 o'clock every morning but we no longer do," said another resident.
Water levels have also dropped significantly. This is because the water ettuce is causing the loss of water through evapo-transpiration.
"I used to keep the place tidy and pull the weeds and burn them, but then I got sick and was in hospital for four months," said the elderly Esmee Wedderburn, who lives opposite the pond.
When she returned, she discovered the situation was too much for her or the neighbours to handle, and that the pink water lilies which had so beautifully adorned the pond had been overtaken and killed by the weed. A few other lilies are struggling to stay afloat. Water lettuce is one of the three most serious aquatic weeds in the world. Depending on the waterbody that is invaded, a dense surface cover of water lettuce can restrict stock access to water, increase water loss by transpiration, and impede drainage and navigation. It can also block water supply inlets, dam waterways, cause flooding, and prevent recreational use of waterways. In some countries it is classified as a Class A noxious plant whose propagation is outlawed.
"We need help before the mosquitoes come, or the water stagnates, the stench sets in, and the lake turned into a health hazard," Wedderburn appealed.
