THE sun had just risen when the motorboat left Cairo, heading down the Nile for Alexandria in Egypt, on Monday three weeks ago. On board were Ngadiman, an Indonesian craftsman from Sragen in Central Java, and officials of the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources & Irrigation on their way to inspect water hyacinths that grow profusely in the Nile water. Two other boats followed.

On arrival at Alexandria, the group found a green expanse of water h