The enormous growth of a mutated plant spoils the Viennese bathing pleasure for free. If you’re currently trying to escape the heat and cool off in the New Danube, you’ll find a carpet of green aquatic plants as far as the eye can see. Mowing boats can hardly fight the plague.
It is especially bad in the southern part of the Danube Island, downstream from the stone railway bridge. There is great anger among Danubian islanders who are enthusiastic about swimming. “When will the city finally do something? It seems to me that we Vienna want to spoil bathing in a very worthless way!”, said pensioner Heinz Janischka (65) about “Krone”. It hasn’t been mowed here for weeks. Postscript: “That’s almost life-threatening.”
Ten centimeters of growth – per day
The new, extremely unpleasant phenomenon has a name: Krause’s pondweed. The new plant thrives in cool temperatures of around ten degrees and grows up to ten (!) centimeters. Per day! Due to the late flooding last year, this hitherto inconspicuous plant managed to establish itself without competition in a very short time and spread massively.
External mowing boats in action
Mowing has become a Sisyphean job. “Because of the large water surface, popular seaside resorts in the New Danube are the first to be mowed,” explains Martin Kollar of Wiener Wasser (MA 45). But can the city’s 15 amphibious mowing boats handle this massive workload at all? Staff capacity has already been increased and outside companies have been appointed and their mowing boats deployed, it is said.
In any case, the office of councilor Ulli Sima (SPÖ) responded quickly to the request of the “Krone”. On Monday, six mowing boats will arrive and will start mowing immediately. The work will take approximately two weeks.
So soon nothing should stand in the way of carefree bathing pleasure.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
