Dembel Emboch Products
Another perspective to water hyacinth (emboch).
Promoting and creating business opportunities for local youth and women by transforming the water hyacinth (Emboch) to beautiful handicrafts and making briquettes for fuel.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Water hyacinth is, like the word already says, a hyacinth that is growing on the water.
Water hyacinth is, like the word already says, a hyacinth that is growing on the water.
Without doubt the flower looks beautiful, but the beauty disguises the real face of the plant: it is an exotic plant, growing very fast and therefore devastating the biodiversity of lake Ziway. For the local community, the water hyacinth is the cause of all the problems in the lake, from reducing the fish population (a problem for the local fishermen), hampering the access to the lake (a problem for tourists who want to visit the lake) and reducing the diversity of the birds’ population. Also, the local government perceives the water hyacinth as a problem for local development and the preservation of the environment.
The Dembel Emboch Products project strives to add another perspective to the water hyacinth problem.
Together with the project partners, we promote and create business opportunities for the local youths and women, by using the (dried) water hyacinth as an input for handicrafts production and briquette making (for fuel).
Beside the local business creation, the project aims at increasing the awareness of the local community and local stakeholders that water hyacinth can also be used for positive purposes, such as local businesses.
We are not yet there. We are still experimenting, we are prototyping the handicrafts and briquettes, and try to take away the bottlenecks and challenges that are coming on our way. We know that we cannot solve the problem of the water hyacinth in the lake (it is a worldwide problem in all lakes in the world). But we believe that we can contribute to using the water hyacinth for business creation and hence use the water hyacinth as an input for many income generating activities for the local community.
JOIN US AS INVESTOR AND/OR DONOR
We are still looking for new partners and investors. Please contact us and we will be happy to provide you with all the information that you may need.