United States of America's 44th President Barack Obama on Friday, April 28, honoured a Kenya, Joseph Nguthiru, who turned his misfortune into a passion for environmental conversation.
Obama announced that Nguthiru was the 2023 Obama Foundation Africa Leader, for his exemplary work in eliminating weed that causes problems in fishing, navigation, irrigation, and water treatment among other issues which create an economic struggle for many families living around Lake Nakuru.
In 2021, Nguthiru and his classmates spent five hours trapped in Lake Naivasha after their boat was hemmed in by a dense mat of an aquatic weed, locally known as Ford or water hyacinth.
“While that sounds like fantasy, that was where our journey began,” Nguthiru, who has since become a great inspiration to young people in Kenya, recounted the beginning of his environmental journey.
The ordeal that Nguthiru and his friend went through did not just leave a bitter memory but also put things in perspective and galvanised him to create a solution to the nagging problem.
At a ceremony that was hosted by Obama, Nguthiru stated that he decided to found HyaPak Ecotech Limited (HyaPak), a start-up company that transforms the water hyacinth plant into biodegradable alternatives for single-use plastic products.
As young students, Nguthiru and his classmates were unable to acquire sophisticated materials for their final-year engineering projects, and that is when they turned to locally available water hyacinths.
“We decided to take this up as our final-year engineering project. However, Egerton University, like other public Kenyan universities, was cash-strapped, so it was suggested that we could alternatively research using other aquatic weeds from the school’s botanical garden to save on costs,” Nguthiru narrated.
Nguthiru's company currently specialises in the use of waste materials and environmentally challenging water hyacinths to produce high-quality products which are also biodegradable.
“We started with single-use plastic products like straws, tumblers, and plastic plates, but the molds for mass-producing these are a bit capital-intensive so we pivoted to biodegradable packaging bags and seedling wrappers to replace single-use plastic bags. Single-use plastic bags have been banned in Kenya, and our solution brings a much-needed alternative to the country,” Nguthiru explained.
In recognition of the great work at HyaPak, the company has won several awards for its innovation that have enabled it to do ground-breaking research and product development.
“The key to sustainability is to make sure we understand how systems work and make sure we improve on them so that we can be prepared for tomorrow without compromising human welfare,” Nguthiru stated.
The Obama Foundation also stated that HyaPak had eliminated over 700 kg of water hyacinth from Lake Naivasha in Kenya, hence ridding the water body of harmful plants.
While acknowledging Nguthiru's effort, Obama noted that water hyacinth is the world’s most problematic aquatic weed, which affects more than 70 countries globally.
