Building resilient cities
Cities cannot be resilient without integrating healthy
wetlands in infrastructure asset management, and planning.
By Bonani Madikizela
A
all authorities, regardless of the legal
mandate, such as the collaboration
among line departments; the Department
of Environmental Affairs (DEA) (the
international focal point); the Department
of Water and Sanitation (DWS); the
Department of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries; City of Tshwane; South African
National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI);
and communities. The change brought
about by the awareness creation is slowly
becoming visible. This is illustrated by the
declining rate of wetlands destruction, as
some investment in wetlands restoration
across the country increases.
Hundreds of ‘green’ jobs in various
villages have been created and improved
the livelihoods in many homesteads.
Indeed, more resources are still required
in South Africa owing to massive wetland
degradation (estimated beyond 60% of
mapped wetlands so far) that both the
country and world have witnessed.
Urban wetlands are essential and
contribute to making cities liveable. In
South Africa, we have witnessed the
dramatic flood disasters in Johannesburg
and Durban, almost annually over the
past few rainy seasons. While wetlands
and river riparian vegetation alone
nnually, on the second of February,
the world over remembers the
establishment of the Ramsar
Convention that happened in 1971 (the
same year that the Water Research
Commission, or WRC, was established),
making it one of the old organisations
that concerns itself with the well-being
of wetlands, society, and economy.
Ramsar’s definition of wetlands
includes all water resources from
mountain seeps through estuaries,
up to six metres into the oceans. This
definition allows for the integration of
Overcrowding and improper infrastructure contribute to issues of sanitation, pollution, and the destruction of wetlands.
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Water Sewage & Effluent March/April 2018