PAGADIAN
CITY - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region IX joins
government, agencies, NGOs and groups of citizens at all levels of the international community in celebrating the
World Wetlands Day (WWD) on February 2, 2013 with the theme” Wetlands and Water
Management”.
It
marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February
1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shore of Caspian Sea. The key
objective of WWD 2013 is to raise
people’s awareness of the interdependence between water and wetlands, to
highlight ways to ensure the equitable sharing of water between different
stakeholder groups and to understand that without wetlands there will be no water.
Wetlands
are areas covered with water either natural or artificial, permanent or
temporary, static or flowing water, fresh/brackish/saline water, including
marine areas where water level at low tide does not exceed six (6) meters. Coral
reef, swamp forest, non-forested swamp, sea grass bed, rice paddies, coastal
marsh, estuary, lake, river, and aquaculture are types of wetlands in
Asia. Wetland ecosystem supports the
life cycle of important pants and animals and serves as windbreak, shoreline
stabilization and storm protection, ground replenishment, among other
functions.
The
Protected Areas Wildlife and Coastal Zone Management Services (PAWCZMS) headed
by its Regional Technical Director Dioscoro M. Melana has lined-up various
activities to mark the occasion with awareness and action from January 14 –
February 25, 2013, to wit: coordination among DENR field offices and
stakeholders for a successful celebration; display of streamer; radio plugging and guesting; press release; kick-off program; MOA Signing & orientation among officials & focal
persons of Labangan, ZDS on the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM)
program implementation; Information,
Education and Communication (IEC) campaign in selected schools and communities,
social mobilization, Sagun Dive Tour, Participatory Coastal Resource Assessment
(PCRA); ICM planning workshop and a
culmination program.
An
Anglo-American poet Wystan Hugh Auden was right when he said “thousands have
lived without love, not one without water” because all life on the planet
depends on water. In designating 2013 as the UN International Year of Water
Cooperation, the United Nations General Assembly recognizes that water is
critical for sustainable development and for human health and well-being.
Consumers
can reduce the amount of water through direct-action by installing water saving toilets, applying
a water-saving showerhead, shutting off the tap during teeth brushing, using
less water in the garden, by not disposing of medicines, paints of other
pollutants down the sink, etc. They can
also support the protection and restoration of wetlands ecosystems. (http://www.waterfootprint.)
We are all water
managers, not just the water companies or government regulations. Every time we
turn on a tap or buy food, we are responsible for a small element of the much
larger water management cycle. At the most basic level, each human body on the
planet contains more than 60% water. The total volume of water on Earth is
about 1.4 billion cubic kilometers. The volume of fresh water resources is
about 2.5% of the total volume and about 97.5% in salt water. Only 0.3% of the
freshwater resources are in our rivers and lakes. The total usable freshwater
supply for ecosystems and humans is about less than 1% of all freshwater
resources. Thus, sustainable water management is a key global concern – and a
matter of life and death for a huge number of people. (WWD 2013 Brochures) (With PR from DENR 9)
No comments:
Post a Comment