Picture showing a tourist resort build on a fertile swamp at Fethiye, Turkey.I came across this article under the WWF website. This article cought my attention as it highlighted the threats facing by the world's wetlands. This mainly due to agriculture, housing and industrial developments. Wetlands are source of fresh water and human can't live without freshwater. Though developments are necessary to improve our living standard, it must not be allowed to establish until it alters the landscape and the ecosystem functions. Wetlands have been retarded from functioning as water retention and flood coontrol measures. According to this article agriculture is the main reason that caused disappearance of wetlands. The amount of water used for irrigation is very high and to date 235 millions of hectares of land are currently irrigated worldwide. Besides that along with the water souce deficiation, there is also threats to native species. Due to aquaculture industry and large fish consumption the ecological balance has completely transformed. Pollution affects drinking water source and biological diversity. Pollution are mainly caused by pesticides, fertilizers, high level of sediment due to removal of vegetation cover in catchment areas. Algae formation and high turbidity blocks sunlight and changes water chemistry and oxygen level.
However there is no single solution for this problem. The high threat to wetland can be avoided by maintaining the valuable wetlands we have and restoring lost and impared wetlands where possible
What are can be carried out to overcome this problem?
Below are some examples:
i) Conserve and restore the available wetland and fresh water source;i.e; Paya Indah Wetlands.
ii) Avoid wetland alteration or degradation when development activities are being carried out i.e.;
construction, sand mining and agriculture.
iii) Conserve and protect the wetland through law and ordinance that protect and restore the
wetland
iv) Maintain wetland & adjacent buffer strips as open space.
v) Support local wetland and watershed protection initiatives.
This article can be viewed at http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/intro/threats/
Panimalar Baskaran
I have read National Geographic the 1992 edition, vol.182, no.4 on Our Disappearing Wetlands. The article stated that in a decade, America has lost two worth of wetlands. What would be more useful than biological productivity? What I understand is wetlands are producers of life, some being equal in output at same size chunk of tropical rainforest. Wetlands lock up large amount of carbon especially in the form of peat, thereby preventing it from entering the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the culprit in global warming issue. Wetlands provide feeding, spawning and nursery grounds fro more than half the salt water fin and shelfish harvested annually in the US and for most of our freshwater fish as well. They are habitat for a third of country’s resident bird species, more than half of its migratory ones, and for one out of three plants and animals currently listed on the federal registry of endangered and threatened species. About water, people need water. Clean water. Wetlands absorb and filter pollutants that would otherwise degrade lakes, rivers reservoirs and aquifers. People need protection from too much water in the wrong places at the wrong times. Coastal wetlands buffer the impacts of storm tides on populated uplands, inland marches sponge up runoff, reducing flood crests downstream. Wetlands used to stabilize shorelines and riverbanks. They are the glue that holds the land together. Perhaps, by focusing on cumulative efforts of all of us and with the help of government legislative in this issue, wetlands may be preserve long enough. Please share your view….
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