The Godavari river is infested with water hyacinth. This invasive weed has choked the river thereby affecting the aquatic flora and fauna making it almost impossible for the later to grow. The water hyacinth grows rapidly almost doubling every 5 days making it very difficult to eradicate them completely.

So, the women in the local villages here came up with a very good idea to deal with this menace, i.e. to convert the water hyacinth to handicrafts.

This idea came to life with active support of Zilla parishad, Nashik. Officials from MSRLM, Panchayat Samiti, Niphad, Gram Panchayat, Chandori have made all the arrangements for the success of the program.

Trainers from Guijan co-operative society, Tinsukia, Assam came over to chandori village to teach women who live on the banks of the Godavari river how to make various hand crafted products using water hyacinth. They are now ready to produce over 20 hand crafted products using dried water hyacinth.

With the help of the team at the Zilla Parishad & MSRLM, Nashik, we are now planning to replicate this centre across 5 more villages on the banks of the river Godavari so that they can scale up their operations.

This project will not only help us in conserving the environment, but also help create opportunities of livelihood for these women through eco friendly and sustainable hand crafted products.