World Wetlands Day 2018
Of course, this causes enormous growth to the cities which then results in the need for much more space. Accomodations have to be created and also everything that comes with urban live standards, such as supermarkets, pharmacies etc. in order to cope with the rising tendencies.
Making this possible means finding space for expansions. Until now, this space has sadly often been found where so-called wetlands used to be, so that a great number of them have already vanished.
This trend is rather a great mistake than a necessary step to take, as wetlands are in fact what makes our cities liveable.
Wetlands are water-filled land areas which are situated in or around a city. These include, for example, lakes, rivers, swamps or even mangroves etc.
What makes them such an important part of urban lives is fairly more than just one reason.
Not only do they improve the air quality of the cities in making it cooler, but moreover wetlands are able to filter waste and improve the water quality in and around urban areas. They do so in, for example, absorbing toxic substances and whatsoever. According to that another thing that they are good for is for keeping our drinking water quality as high as it is at the moment, as they are often the link between the resource of the water and its destination in the drinking water treatment centre.
Since wetlands are also protecting other water sources from run-off, they are having a big impact in areas where floods and tropical rains are occuring. They absorb and soak up the flood waters and therefore protect buildings from being underwater and acres from becoming unfertilizable.
In general urban wetlands provide a lot of opportunities to ensure human well-being in simply being a green area where inhabitants of the city can spend some few hours away from the rush in the city enjoying mother nature and having a bit of down time. Scientists found out that even a very short period of time spend in the nature is reducing stress levels and improves health.
People who want to benefit from these aspects on a larger scale even have the chance of finding work in the wetlands. Either in ecological tourism, as a fisher or a forester.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated every 2nd of February to raise awareness for how important all these facts are in order to protect our environment and for enabling all generations, even those who are yet to come, to enjoy the same living standards that we are striving for nowadays. World Wetlands Day aims to promote to make sure we are leaving the world behind like it has been in the first place.
Therefore, pollution and waste reduction are two important aspects to mention.
In polluting our natural resources we are damaging our world in a great number of ways. Polluted water is one of the reasons why there thousands of humans dying from various diseases, as there is no other option for them to find something else to drink.
Sustainable Development Goal 6 commits the world to ensuring that everyone has access to safe water by 2030, and includes targets on protecting the natural environment and reducing pollution. Still, this goal is somewhat out of reach.
But not only the quality of drinking water is affected by our way of dealing with waste. Biodiversity is another reason why we should take more care about our environment. A lot of races have already been extinguished and experts are again and again warning about the loss of species that we are facing because of environmental issues. Part of this is also the air pollution cities are responsible for due to their numerous production facilities.
So this World Wetlands Day we, the team of PRAXIS Greece, invite you to find out more information on wetlands in your surroundings and maybe visit them to experience what mother nature has to provide.
Furthermore, you could join a group of environmental activists to either collect trash or watch the biodiversity of the wetlands through the lense of a telescope, like we are going to do this sunday.
Of course, this is not something you should only do on this specific day, but throughout the entire year, but for those who haven’t been active yet it needs a time and activity to start with.
written by Karolin VR