Date: 02/02/2008
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs
Title: SA: Mabudafhasi: World Wetlands Day

Speech by Honourable Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi on World Wetlands Day 2008 celebration, Walter Sisulu Square, SowetoTheme: Healthy Wetlands, Healthy people

Gauteng MEC for Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Mr Khabisi Mosunkutu
Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Mr Amos Masondo
Chief Executive Officer of South Africa National Biodiversity Institute, Dr Tanya Abrahamse
Professor Terence McCarthy of the University of Witwatersrand
Members of the media
Members of the community
Officials
Ladies and gentlemen

"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family" - former United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, said these words to encourage Africans to seek knowledge which is essential for driving human development.

These words of wisdom are applicable in our everyday lives when we interact with the nature, especially today as we celebrate World Wetlands Day 2008. The international Ramsar Convention on Wetlands decided on "Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People" as the global theme for this year in recognition of the importance of the inter-dependence between humankind and wetlands.

South Africa is one of 157 countries that signed the Ramsa Convention and is a founder member, having ratified the convention in 1975. In signing this agreement, our country undertook to conserve its sites, to promote the wise use of all its wetlands, and to co-operate with other countries.

Wetlands are places such as lakes, marshes, swamps, estuaries, floodplains and pans where aquatic and land ecosystems meet and interact. They provide special habitats for many species which cannot survive anywhere else. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) identified wetlands as the third most important life support system on earth.

Research concurs that the health and well-being of people is intricately linked to the state of their environment of which wetlands are an integral part. Wetlands provide life-support services that sustain our livelihoods.

Directly or indirectly, we all derive enormous benefits from wetlands - from water provision to flood attenuation to green spaces for people and wildlife.

Wetlands and water

Wetlands play an important role in ensuring a steady supply of clean water for urban and rural communities. For urban dwellers that draw water from taps, healthy wetlands in river systems contribute significantly to reducing the cost of purifying water. This makes it possible for government to channel more money towards meeting other needs.

Wetlands can also trap heavy metals from mining and industrial processes. They also act like giant sponges which slow down flood waters, store water when it rains and then release it slowly during the dry season.

Food supply

Good food helps keep people healthy. Wetlands enable people to harvest protein-rich food such as fish and frogs which are used on a subsistence basis or exploited commercially. People in the Eastern and Western Cape use waterblommetjie flowers to make a delicious traditional stew while the tuber of the blue water lily is roasted like potato for human consumption. Wetlands yield various fruits, nuts and leafy vegetables that people enjoy.

Wetlands and medicine

Many wetland plants have great medicinal value. In South Africa traditional medicine is the preferred primary health care choice for about 70 percent of people. Wetlands provide some of the 19 500 tons of medicinal plant material, which are used by 28 million South Africans every year.

For example, the river pumpkin, a common plant in KwaZulu-Natal, is used to ease childbirth and treat kidney and bladder infections. Other wetlands plant species are used to treat coughs, headaches, urinary complaints, throat ulcers, wounds, pain, etc.

Wetlands and the economy

Wetlands are an important contribution to the economy - both formal and informal. In Mbongolwane in northern KwaZulu-Natal, about a third of household income comes from the sale of crafts woven from fibre grass harvested from wetlands.

Women harvest reeds such as induma and ikwane to make conference bags, file covers and corporate gifts which earn them substantial income each year.
In Isimangaliso Wetland Park there are 200 women who sell products such as blinds, lamp shades and mats to home supply stores and lodges, and earn close to R1 million annually.

A variety of wetland grasses and ilala palm leaves are used for these products. The commercial agreement entered into between the Isimangaliso Wetland Park and retail store Mr Price paved the way for these women to enter the formal retail market - this is a welcome development to transform and strengthen the viability of second economy businesses.

Much of tourism is nature driven and here wetlands play a major role. People love water and wetlands offer delightful scenery that people visit to walk and watch birds such as Wattle Cranes, Flamingos.

Wetlands and floods

Healthy wetlands help to reduce the destructive impact of fast-flowing floods and storms. Marshy ground with reeds and other plants force river waters to slow down and spread out. In coastal zones wetlands provide protection by creating buffer zones between the sea and land.

From these few examples, it is clear that in providing these ecosystem services, healthy wetlands play an important role in keeping people healthy. The problem is, when an ecosystem becomes degraded, the services it provides diminish. Through our National Wetland Inventory we have to date mapped over 120 000 wetlands, which collectively cover 7 percent of our country's surface area.
It is estimated that between 35 and 50 percent of these wetlands have been lost or degraded.

We need to refine our wetland information through the National Wetlands Inventory and the research being conducted by the Water Research Commission and other institutions. We also need to develop effective wetlands training programmes, and in this respect it is encouraging to see the emergence of the Wetlands Alliance for Training, Education and Research, housed within the Wildlife Society.

The responsibility for looking after wetlands does not rest with government alone. Landowners have a duty of care to ensure that the wetlands on their land remain in good condition.

Since we all benefit from wetlands directly or indirectly, we all have a part to play in maintaining their ability to continue providing these benefits now and in the future. Even within government, no department or sphere of government can solve this problem alone. In the South African context, wetlands fall across the mandates of several government departments.

The various departments have different legislative commitments to wetlands. The National Water Act of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, the Conservation of Agriculture Act of the Department of Agriculture and the National Environmental Management Act of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism all commit to protecting and rehabilitating wetlands on different levels. In 2000, these departments formed the Working For Wetlands programme to rehabilitate and take care of our wetlands. The South African National Biodiversity Institute implements this programme as part of poverty eradication and also strengthen co-operative governance and partnership.

Funding is provided by Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) and Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). It is using the labour intensive approach thus creating jobs both temporary and permanent including small businesses.

In the last year alone, Working for Wetlands rehabilitated 83 wetlands in all nine provinces and in the process employed 2 265 people and made use of 250 small businesses, some created specifically for wetland rehabilitation. In total the programme provided over 36 000 training days to its beneficiaries.

I would like to acknowledge the role played by these workers in rehabilitating our wetlands. Some of them are here today from our Klip River project, and they are truly our wetland ambassadors. In addition to Working for Wetlands, other EPWP-aligned environmental programmes that contribute to healthy wetlands include Working for Water, People and Parks, Coast Care, Land Care, Working on Fire, and community-based natural resource management.

These efforts are complementing work underway in DEAT, DWAF and the Department of Agriculture (DoA), provinces and municipalities to conserve and use our wetlands wisely. The position papers on wetlands currently under development in both DWAF and DoA are proof of the cross cutting nature of wetlands and the seriousness with which these departments are tackling their mandates.

Further proof is the range of partners who have come here today. I see business, civil society, concerned landowners and public servants from across the breadth of government uniting behind the common objective of healthy wetlands, healthy people.

Announcement

We are here today to talk about the Klip River wetlands - and they are not far from us - not even a hundred metres away. They are important because they have contributed indirectly to our economy and directly to our well-being because of their effectiveness in purifying wastewater from Johannesburg.

But we have already heard today about how they are being degraded and we know that it means some difficult challenges for people downstream and also for the city. And we have come together today to start a process to find solutions together.

In the coming year, Working for Wetlands will initiate a process to investigate options and secure funding for rehabilitation of the Klip River wetland. Although Working for Wetlands currently has a project focusing on wetlands in the tributaries of the Klip River in Soweto, this will need to be supplemented by further substantial resources, taking into account the scale of the problem. A key task will thus be to engage potential partners who have an interest in seeing the wetland restored to health. This includes many of the partners who are involved in this event today.

DEAT, through Working for Wetlands, has earmarked some initial funding to ensure that this process begins and I will be engaging with my colleagues in other departments and in the province and city to request that they do the same. It is only through such a combined approach that we can hope to tackle a problem of this magnitude, and it is our shared responsibility to bring the Klip River wetlands back to health.

In conclusion, I would like us to be hands-on with the rehabilitation programmes. Our collective style should be management by being at wetlands sites, management by walking around the wetlands. Third persons will not have to tell us what is going on in our wetlands. We should hear it, we should see it, and we should personally experience it every day.

Thank you.