A rare image of a cross section of a ‘weeping’ wetland, showing the amount of moisture held in the soil.
Wetland hopes dampened
With the relentless urban sprawl, the country’s wetlands are
coming under continuous assault as all manner of waste is
thrown into these sensitive and vital ecological worlds.
By Kim Kemp
P
aul Fairall, principal consultant
for Emifula, riverine and wetland
remedial
consultants
and
associates, has been in the field
for 27 years, focusing on saving the
environment (all fauna and flora) of
wetlands specifically. His passion is
obvious as he enthuses, “Wetlands
are the most superb example of a self-
contained micro environment.”
From wetland to wasteland
Fairall outlines that in 1996, the United
Nations appointed over 400 engineers
from 94 countries to investigate the
16
state of wetlands worldwide, and they
concluded that 50% of the world’s
wetlands had been lost forever. “It’s a
unique ecological framework that you
can impact on, but it can also be totally
destroyed,” the expert comments. He
points out that our ancestors are hugely
to blame for the disappearance of
wetlands: “Unfortunately, the pioneers
of modern, older cities, such as Cape
Town or London, entirely obliterated
the pre-existing wetlands on which
those cities are built.”
Ignorance has played its part in
the destruction of wetlands, which are
often viewed as inconvenient, bog-like
Water Sewage & Effluent September/October 2017
areas into which all manner of waste
can be funnelled, from garbage and
industrial effluent to raw sewage.
“We throw anything into these vital
areas because it drains away from the
river. However, rivers and wetlands are
inseparable: if rivers are the arteries
of the world, the wetlands would be
the kidneys. They act as a sponge,
retaining water. In that process, they
cleanse the water and they remove and
sequester the heavy metals,” Fairall
explains. The challenge however, he
adds, is the removal of phosphates and
nitrates, both to blame for algae blooms,
the weed-like plants that strangle