Saving our urban marshes

Wetlands or marsh areas are called green lungs of cities and kidneys of the landscape. Lungs and kidneys - are vital organs of the human body. The reason for this comparison is very clear if you look around at the sight and function of marshes around any urban location.

Wetlands in the form of marshes, mangrove swamps, rivers, lakes and lagoons practically engulf the city's periphery. Whichever direction you head, going out of Colombo you are bound to meet wetlands in one of this forms.

Actually large swathes of the built up city that we see today were once upon a time just wetlands and marsh.

In the past, the value of wetlands were never realised or recognised. These lands were looked upon as wastelands waiting to be put to productive use for humans - in urban locations this meant filling up marshes and construct. But through the years, and mostly through hard lessons (like urban flash floods) people have come to realise the need to conserve wetlands.

But even today, long after the government and the local authorities realised the danger of indiscriminate land filling and blocking of city drainage, reclamation of marsh lands continues with little control.

Some wetland areas have been declared sanctuaries and granted protected status by the Department of Wildlife. Kotte, Attidiya and Muthurajawela are wetland areas around the capital city which have been protected from human misuse. But despite such legal protection the abuse continues.

Filling up of wetlands is just one of many threats to these unique eco-systems. Marshes that lie adjacent to urban areas are rife with other problems, chief among them is waste disposal.

In a study of solid waste management in the Ja-ela area Nalaka Sirirwardena and Levien van Zon observe that the disposal mechanism is indiscriminate dumping into the marsh.

The half-constructed Colombo-Katunayake expressway only makes it easier for Urban Councils along the route to dump mixed waste - like domestic, industrial and hospital waste, into the Muthurajawela. Encroachment of squatter homes is a common feature in the marsh and is little controlled by legislation. Unfortunately these squatter colonies also breed a number of social ills, living as they are on the margins of society.

Last year the government approved a National Wetland Policy, prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

The policy recognises the value of wetlands, calling them national heritage that need to be conserved, restored and sustainably managed for human benefit.

This policy looks at an all-new structure in the form of a National Wetland Steering Committee/ Unit to oversee the implementation of the policy. At local level, decentralised administrative units divisional, district and provincial- are expected to establish their own Wetland Management Committees to ensure that threats are minimised, degenerated wetlands are restored and that certain traditional, sustainable uses are protected (lagoon fishing, harvesting certain plants).

While it is indeed encouraging to see a national policy on conserving an important resource such as wetlands, its implementation, especially through local authorities causes a number of questions. Local authorities have been in the forefront in abusing wetland, by allowing land filling, by dumping garbage and sanctioning encroachment.

Even now, urban councils and pradeshiya sabhas are the main culprits responsible for using wetlands as dumping sites.

It is vital that the first awareness campaigns on the policy and its implementation target local authority officials.

There is a little use in a public education campaign when the authorities are the main threat to conserving wetlands.