LAST year Cesar Pasco, a businessman from San Pablo City, Laguna, shipped several container vans of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) handicrafts abroad. After a few weeks, all the items—covered with molds—were returned to him.

“I did not know then how to dry and preserve the water hyacinth stems correctly,” Pasco says.

A seminar conducted by Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), helped wipe out this problem. Today Pasco enjoys brisk business, exporting durable, fungi-free water hyacinth wine-bottle holders to Europe.

“Starting last year, training on water-hyacinth processing has been among our most in demand courses,” says Dr. Emelyne Cortiguerra, head of the FPRDI’s training unit. “People working in the industry ask us to teach them how to protect water-hyacinth stems from fungi and insects.”

This is a big concern as the material has a very high moisture content that it is an easy target for molds. Entrepreneurs are also taught dyeing techniques so that they can make their products as varied and as artistic as possible.

The water hyacinth (often mistakenly called water lily) that covers vast tracts of Laguna Lake used to be a major headache in lakeshore towns as it caused massive flooding, blocked fishermen’s path and drove fish away.

All that changed when enterprising local government leaders in Las Piñas City saw promise in the plant and started a water hyacinth-livelihood project.

Today—with the help of nongovernment organizations, private groups and the Department of Trade and Industry—similar initiatives have sprouted and are growing in Taguig and Muntinlupa cities in Metro Manila; Cardona, Rizal, and San Pablo City, Laguna.

“Our trainees,” says Dr. Cortiguerra, “are mostly housewives and out-of-school youth from these towns. They weave attractive bags, slippers, hats, wine-bottle holders, trays, lamp shades from dried, flattened stalks of the plant. Their products are slowly becoming popular here and abroad.”

A seminar on the processing (drying, preservation and dyeing) and production of novelty items from water hyacinth is scheduled on September 22 and 23 at the FPRDI premises in Los Baños, Laguna. Training fee is P1,400. For details, call (049)536-2377 or (049)536-2586; or send e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .