Wetlands For Disaster Risk Reduction - News | DEA&DP

Wetlands For Disaster Risk Reduction

1 February 2017

World Wetlands Day (WWD) is celebrated every year on 2 February. The Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, was adopted on 2 February 1971. It is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international co-operation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

On this day, people around the world, including government departments, non-governmental organisations, civil society at large and academia, come together to celebrate WWD with the aim of creating and raising public awareness on the value of wetlands and its vital link to human well-being.

The 2017 theme for WWD was Wetlands for Disaster Risk Reduction”. This has been selected to demonstrate the impact of natural disasters on natural ecosystems. The objective of this theme is to raise awareness and to highlight the vital roles of healthy wetlands in reducing the impacts of extreme events such as floods, droughts and cyclones on communities, and in helping to build resilience.

This came at an opportune time where South Africa is currently experiencing drought as well as recent floods of which Gauteng Province was the most affected. Therefore, this demonstrate the benefits of wetlands, in particular the provision of ecosystem services such as water and their resilience to drought and flood events.

South Africa is a water scarce country, and the water in many streams is polluted. Both droughts and floods are common. In this regards, wetlands play a vital role by removing toxic substances and sediment from water, while also improving downstream water quality and the overall health of communities.

Wetlands are able to reduce the severity of droughts and floods by regulating stream flow. They also help to purify water and provide habitat for many different plants and animals. Besides these indirect benefits to society, wetlands provide many direct benefits in the form of resources such as fibre for making crafts as well as recreational opportunities. However lack of community awareness on the value and benefits of wetlands often leads to their transformation by humans.

Wetlands also produce goods that have a significant economic value such as clean water, fisheries, timber, wildlife resources and tourism opportunities.

Involvement

Therefore, our Department’s Communication Services team in collaboration with CapeNature, hosted six primary school groups from the Overstrand from 1 – 3 February. The day’s events started at Malkopsvlei (also referred to as Bass Lake), Betty’s Bay where the learners were introduced to the wetland area and informed about the importance of wetlands and the future preservation of it.

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The visits continued at Stoney Point Nature Reserve, that is home to a unique colony of African penguins.

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At the visitor’s centre, the children got to know all about penguins and afterwards had a chance to see these wonderful flightless birds up close in their natural habitat.