Each year, thousands of migratory birds such as the colorful African pygmy goose, maccoa duck and African spoonbill stop at the Cleveland Dam wetland in Zimbabwe to breed and rest. The wetland is the largest protected area in the country’s capital, Harare, and a key biodiversity spot. But in recent years, it’s come under threat from sand mining, development, and unsustainable water withdrawal by local businesses. “The fact that the wetlands are falling to ruin means that the link between humanity and wetlands is not balancing. The continued degradation of wetlands has eroded their connection to humanity,” says Jimmy Mahachi, founder of the Cleveland Action Alliance, a community-based organization. Mahachi has spent a decade advocating for his community’s right to water and the preservation of the Cleveland Dam, one of the country’s seven Ramsar wetlands. Some residents of the New Mabvuku suburb where Mahachi lives haven’t had running water for more than 30 years. The community relies on groundwater from wells and boreholes that are replenished by the Cleveland Dam wetland. Because of its overexploitation, less freshwater reaches New Mabvuku. Instead, they have to collect water from unprotected, even contaminated, sources. Mahachi’s complaints are frequently ignored. Instead, he’s received threats for speaking out about the water crisis in his community. World Wetlands Day, held on Feb.2 each year, commemorates the historic adoption of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1971, announced in the Iranian city of the same name, to halt the loss of this cradle of water and biological diversity.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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