by Staff reporter
Zimbabwe yesterday joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Wetlands Day, which was held under the theme “Water and Wetlands- inseparable for life”
This year’s theme seeks to impress on the importance of wetlands as a source of freshwater and to implore on their conservation and garner for action towards restoring the degraded wetlands and stop further wetlands loss.
In a press statement yesterday, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu said that this year’s theme highlights the umbilical relationship between wetlands and water, and how wetlands contribute to the quantity and quality of water on our planet.
“During these trying times brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the environment remains key in providing nature based solutions where communities turn to the natural resources for medicinal purposes,” says Minister Ndlovu.
The 2nd of February of each year is a World Wetlands Day that is commemorated to mark the signing of the Treaty on the conservation of wetlands, which was signed on 2 February 1971, in Ramsar, Iran.
The Treaty in which Zimbabwe is a signatory became popularly known as Ramsar Convention, and its major aim being to raise public awareness and foster conservation, proper utilisation and management of wetlands and their resources.
Minister Ndlovu said that the Ramsar convention was uniquely positioned to reverse the loss of global wetlands and preserve those that are still in their pristine state, hence the country needs to religiously conform to this noble cause.
“Global statistics show that we use 10 billion tonnes of water everyday of which 70 percent is used for food cultivation, 22 percent consumed by industry and energy. Water use has increased six fold in 100 years and continues to rise by 1 percent annually, yet only 2.5 percent of water on Earth is fresh water, mostly stored in glaciers, ice caps and underground aquifers and less than 1 percent of freshwater is usable, it is indeed a cause for concern,” said Minister Ndlovu.
This year’s World Wetlands Day commemorations come at a time when most of MDC-Alliance-led urban councils are allocating residential and commercial stands to people on wetlands, threatening their existence in urban areas.
