A 25-year-old ecologist from Tiruchi has shown that water hyacinth, the invasive weed choking rivers and tanks across South Asia, can produce more paper with less water and chemical use than wood pulp. In her laboratory trials, one kg of water hyacinth yielded 34 A4 sheets of paper, compared to 13-14 sheets from conventional wood pulp.
The work is by Sushmita Krishnan, a resident of Kattur and alumna of Bharathidasan University's five-year M.Sc. Life Sciences programme. While on an International Sustainability Academy fellowship at the University of Hamburg, she began experimenting with water hyacinth.
"Traditional paper making consumes huge amounts of water and chemicals. Water hyacinth reduces that burden. If refined further, it could cut costs and save trees," she said.
Scaling up remains a challenge. In Tiruchi's Uyyakondan canal and other waterbodies, hyacinth is heavily polluted with plastic and sewage. "Industries hesitate to handle such biomass as drying and cleaning are expensive," Ms. Krishnan noted. By contrast, in Hampi, where community awareness has helped keep water bodies cleaner, limited use of hyacinth pulp has been possible. Similar pilot efforts exist in Africa, Kerala, and Assam but have not reached industrial scale.
Yet, the ecological case for exploring alternatives is strong. A single water hyacinth plant can produce up to 2,000 seeds, with no natural enemy in Indian waters. Studies show that an infested hectare can generate up to seven lakh kilograms of biomass annually, blocking sunlight, depleting oxygen, and devastating aquatic ecosystems said Ms. Krishnan.
"If supported with infrastructure and policy, water hyacinth could reduce chemical use, cut water consumption in paper production, and turn a massive ecological burden into a resource." She added.
Ms. Krishnan has presented her findings at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the European Union Centre for Sustainable Development, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Leaders' Forum. She conducts workshops in various colleges and universities regularly. She will now pursue a Ph.D. in Germany on industrial pulping methods for water hyacinth and social-ecological models for managing invasive species.