Question

Water hyacinth is being grown in water bodies lying near by industries. Give reason for the same.

Answer 1

Hint: The water hyacinth is a free-floating perennial aquatic plant that is native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America. Water hyacinth may rise above the surface of the water as much as \[1\] meter in height with thick, broad and ovate leaves. The leaves of water hyacinth are about \[10 - 20{\text{ }}cm\] across on a stem which is floating by means of buoyant bulb-like nodules at its base and above the surface of water.

Complete answer:
Due to waste discharged from the factories, water bodies around industries generally get polluted.; The water hyacinth has special ability to filter out metals such as lead, mercury, nickel, cadmium and other kinds of water pollutants. Due to this ability of water hyacinth, they are grown in water bodies that are lying near by the industries.
It is observed that water hyacinth has the ability to enhance nitrification in wastewater treatment cells of living technology. The root zones of water hyacinth are great microsites for bacterial communities. From drinking water that is contaminated by arsenic, water hyacinth can effectively remove the arsenic content. Water hyacinth has an efficiency of about \[60 - 80\% \] in nitrogen removal and about \[69\% \] of potassium removal from water. Particulate matter and nitrogen in a natural shallow eutrophicated wetland are found to be removed by roots of water hyacinth. The water hyacinth is also an excellent source of biomass because of its extremely high rate of development.

Note:
The water hyacinth blue breeds quickly and is easy to float and spread which can cover the water body quickly, resulting in poor transparency of the water body. For this reason, in natural waters, water hyacinth blue in natural water competes with other aquatic plants that are both floating and submerged and algae for mineral nutrition, sunlight and resources which leads to the inhibition of growth of other aquatic and algal organisms.