Wetlands International South Asia and Ramsar Regional Center East Asia are hosting a three-day virtual training workshop on ‘Integrating Wetlands in Water Management in South Asia’ during November 9-11, 2021. The workshop is aimed at introducing the wetlands managers to conceptual and technological advancements in determining wetlands and water sector integration opportunities and pathways, towards achieving wise use outcomes. Experts from International Water Management Institute, Charles Sturt University and Wetlands International will deliver the various technical sessions and introduce the participants to the state of the art and ways of improvising wetlands management giving due attention to water management dimensions. Ramsar Focal Points of South Asia Countries (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Maldives) are nominating training workshop participants.
Development of South Asia is closely linked to the health of regions wetlands which are cradles of regions several civilizations and play an important role in ensuring water, food and climatic security, providing habitat to a range of plant and animal species, and being closely intertwined with the region’s cultural identities. However, complex developmental dynamics, coupled with limited awareness on the contribution wetlands make to the societal well being, has led to severe pressure on wetlands, leading to their degradation, loss and conversion for conversion for alternate uses.
The South Asia’s alarming water security situations call for reframing wetland conservation in a water and climate security perspective. South Asia is home to nearly one fourth of world’s population with just 3% of worlds land area and 5% of worlds renewable fresh water resources. Nearly three fifth of regions irrigation water is sourced from ground water tapped from its 25-27 million shallow tube wells. Water once considered abundant is becoming increasingly scarce, with rapid decline in per capita availability. Unsustainable extraction of ground water has led to falling water tables in several regions. As per the Global Risk Analysis Report, 49.43% of the total South Asian population are at ‘relatively high mortality risk’ from natural disasters. A majority of the most devastating water related disasters in the South Asian region have had their genesis in mismanaged wetlands wherein lopsided development has adversely impacted the inherent buffering capacity of these ecosystems. Infrastructure led planning, historically adopted for agriculture development in the region has proven counterproductive for natural ecosystems as wetlands. In as sectoral policy making environment, ecosystem water requirements are seen as a competing demand in an ever-increasing gap in meeting human demands of water. Continued degradation of wetlands makes the region more vulnerable to the aforementioned trends.
As an integral component of hydrological cycle, wetlands are critically important in regulating the quantity, quality and reliability of water as it moves through in its various forms. Wetlands provide vital water-related ecosystem services at different scales (for example clean water provision, wastewater treatment, groundwater replenishment) and thereby offer significant opportunities to address water management objectives with sustainable, and in several instances, cost-effective solutions. The ecosystem services of wetlands can also complement human-made infrastructure to deliver water supply, sewage treatment and energy, thereby aptly being referred to as ‘natural’ or ‘green infrastructure’ or ‘nature-based solutions’ for water managers. Changes and degradation of wetlands particularly in their structure and functions can lead to significant changes in their flow pattern and chemical and microbiological character of water resources. At the same time wetlands require sufficient water to maintain a desired level of their ecological health. Given the fact that most of the impacts of climate change in the region would be water mediated, integrating the role of wetlands in climate change demands urgent attention and integration in mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Wetlands evolve and function within physical templates set by water regimes and sediments. Several water resources development projects in south Asia have thereby led to degradation of wetlands by altering flow patterns, reducing water availability and deteriorating water quality, ultimately rendering the entire water management unsustainable. The delivery of hydrological functions is contingent on the availability of water of right quantity and quality and at the right time, thus necessitating that wetland functioning is integrated into water resources planning and decision-making processes. Similarly, wetland managers need to articulate the water needs of wetlands to water managers, and ways wetlands can help meet water resources management objectives. It is argued that the rapid loss of natural wetlands is not just a crisis for environment, but also for water and climate security. By transforming the available science on the role of wetlands into practical actions, the two sectors of wetlands and water which have historically pursued disparate trajectories, can capitalize on mutually supportive outcomes towards resilience building.
The most significant work on wetlands and water is available within the Ramsar Convention. A number of resolutions have been adopted by Contracting Parties which have been summarized in four handbooks. A common element in all these guidelines is recognition of two important facts: a) water resources management is dependent to a large degree on the hydrological functions of wetlands; and b) wetland ecosystems need a certain amount of water allocated for maintenance of ecological character, in order to maintain these hydrological functions. The Ramsar guidelines on integration of wetlands in river basin management are structured around eight principles (sustainability as a goal, clarity of process, equity in participation and decision-making, credibility of science, transparency in implementation, flexibility in management, accountability for decisions, and cross-sectoral cooperation in policy development and implementation) and recommend a critical path approach to achieve the integration. The guidelines on allocation of water for wetlands stress upon an enabling policy environment, supported by appropriate legal arrangements and a framework for assessing the merits of different allocation options. Similarly, the guidelines for integrated management planning encourage site managers to take into account the role of wetlands in wider catchments while defining wise use strategies.
In an era of increasing water variability and extreme events, it is argued that stationarity based water allocation approaches may need to graduate to one that focuses on building resilience, especially preventing breaching of thresholds which can shift water systems and society to alternate and often undesirable states. A major emphasis on water management in South Asia has been on harnessing blue water, the runoff, using inflexible infrastructure managed often on rules determined on historical hydrological observations – which are found wanting in the face of extreme events and uncertainties imposed by climate change. A widened focus on building water system resilience considering the entire blue-green water interactions allows for addressing the inherent inflexibility of hard engineering infrastructure by bringing in the role of green infrastructure solutions which use natural or semi-natural systems to provide water resources management options. Nature based solutions, which are inspired by nature, and use or even mimic natural processes to contribute to improved water management, are at the heart of green-infrastructure solutions. These solutions include wetlands conservation and rejuvenation, and wetlands-based technologies such as constructed wetlands to address various water management issues. However, integration of wetlands in water management cannot be treated as an additive process wherein the policies and programmes of wetlands and water sector are simply joined together, but require a more sophisticated and collaborative approach beyond sectoral disciplines. The issue at hand is not just about connecting two different policy areas at a single hydrological (catchment) or administrative scale. Given the pervasive uncertainty (such as the manifestation of climate change on wetlands functioning as well as on extreme hydrological events, such as floods and droughts) and contested knowledge claims (such as increased need for hydrological regulation is required to address variability), the difficulty of joined-up management of wetlands and water cannot be overcome by policy and programme actors acting in isolation. The role of collaborative governance solutions is crucial for addressing challenges associated with building coherent conceptual and methodological narratives (such as wetlands degradation not just seen as tantamount to loss of critical ecosystem services, but reduced landscape resiliency to increasing water risks), and developing approaches for joint working that have potential to transform, rather than simply reaffirm segmented ways of research on natural systems and landscapes.
Wetlands International South Asia and Ramsar Regional Centre for East Asia signed a Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration on promoting wise use of wetlands in South Asia through capacity development and supporting application of recent scientific and technical advancements in the management of wetlands in South Asian region, which would ultimately support implementation of Ramsar Convention in the region. The ultimate objective is to guide efforts towards establishment of a South Asia wetlands managers’ platform to enable shared learning and application of region-specific approaches for conservation and management of wetlands. This training workshop is being organised under the ambit of this MoU.