Spreading the message on water resource conservation

Water, Wetland & We (WWW) :

Tharindu Weerasinghe

Wetland education club of Mahamaya Girls’ College, together with the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Peradeniya and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore organized an environmental exhibition under the theme of Water, Wetland & We (WWW) recently at the Auditorium of Mahamaya Girls’ College, Kandy.

Premier objectives of the exhibition were to empower the schools who initiated a holistic approach to urban wetland application and water resource management education for the future generation as well as grooming student leaders cum environmental ambassadors armed with knowledge of constructed wetlands, to spread the message on water resource conservation to the community. Chief Guest of the occasion was the Executive Director of NEWRI - Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, Prof. N G Wun Jern

Students of more than ten schools in Kandy participated in the event. Exhibits of students implied their outstanding knowledge on urban wetland application and water resource management. They were highly appreciated by the people who came to see the exhibition.

Students and teachers from other schools were motivated to initiate Wetland Education Clubs in their schools too. As an important outcome of this event, Nanyang Technology University agreed to fund to develop a education center on wetland education in Kandy.According to http://www.wetlands.org, wetlands are highly variable and dynamic: they are water bodies but also include land. They are freshwater, brackish or saline, inland or coastal, seasonal or permanent, natural or man-made. Wetlands include mangroves, (peat) swamps and marshes, rivers, lakes, floodplains and flooded forests, rice-fields and even coral reefs.

Wetlands can be regarded as one of the world’s most important environmental assets, containing a disproportionately high number of plant and animal species compared to other areas of the world. Until now they have been vital to human life cycle. Some of the major wetlands of Sri Lanka are Muthurajawela, Bundala and Maduganga.

Thus it is so important that school children get more information and education related to wetlands. So, the effort of the organizers of the above exhibition should be highly appreciated especially in the context of environment pollution of the contemporary world and human negligence toward it!