Wetlands disappear 3 times faster than forests threatening freshwater supplies: Report | News from India

NEW DELHI: Wetlands, which directly or indirectly supply almost all of the world's freshwater consumption, are disappearing three times faster than forests, according to the Ramsar Convention, a global treaty published Thursday morning in Switzerland from 170 countries , including India, to protect the most valuable ecosystem.

Between 1970 and 2015, about 35% of the world's wetlands were lost.

The report states an average annual loss rate of 0.78% per year, which has "serious consequences" for the future unless urgent measures are taken to ensure their survival.

"This rate is three times faster than the average annual rate of loss of natural forests between 1990 and 2015, or 0.24% per year," said the report of the convention, while calling on countries around the world to make concerted efforts to protect him.

It is estimated that wetlands, which include lakes, rivers, marshes and peat bogs, as well as coastal and marine areas such as estuaries, lagoons, mangroves and coral reefs, currently cover more than 12.1 millions of square kilometers. size of India.

They are a vital source of food, raw materials, genetic resources for medicines and hydropower and play an important role in transport and tourism. According to one estimate, more than one billion people around the world depend on it and 40% of the world's species live and breed in wetlands.

"The Global Wetlands Outlook is a signal of attention, not only to the high rate of loss of the world's wetlands, but also to the critical services they provide. Without them, the global agenda for sustainable development will not be achieved, "said Martha Rojas Urrego, secretary general of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

"We need urgent collective action to reverse the trends in wetland loss and degradation and ensure both the future of wetlands and ours," she said. .

The report notes how pollution from a variety of sources has resulted in a deterioration of water quality, with almost all freshwater sources in the world being compromised.

Citing the UN, the report says more than 80 percent of wastewater is dumped in wetlands without proper treatment, while fertilizer use in 2018 is likely to be 25 percent higher than in 2008, exacerbating over-growth. plants and decomposition levels for fauna and flora.

"Losses (of wetlands) have been caused by major trends such as climate change, population growth, urbanization, especially coastal areas and river deltas and l? changing patterns of consumption that have all fueled changes in land and water use. said.

Referring to the efforts of different countries, the report highlights how, in 2017, the Supreme Court in India ordered, in response to a lawsuit in the public interest, a national inventory of nearly 2,000,000 wetlands.

India had notified new rules to protect wetlands, decentralizing its management by giving states the power not only to identify and notify wetlands in their respective jurisdictions, but also to monitor prohibited activities .