Life Sustaining Watersheds: Protect Them!
We all live in a Watershed and survive because of it.
A Watershed is an area of hilly or mountainous land from which water, RAINWATER, drains into streams, waterfalls, clear water pools, then into rivers and eventually into wetlands and the sea.
Do we need them? Well, they are vital for sustaining Life in more ways than one. First of all through the water and forests, they supply. They are essential for our very survival and well-being by giving us the most valuable resources that we need which are the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.
Further, we depend on watersheds too for sustainable economic growth; for the millions of dollars in agricultural productivity, foods, goods, industry and manufacturing.
Our beautiful mountainous areas and watersheds also provide multiple benefits such as a stable local and global climate and a healthy environment. They reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Also they offer wonderful opportunities for nature-based tourism; they also give us our forests and provide a habitat for numerous plants, wildlife and our biodiversity.
Watershed areas are particularly important because they protect soil cover on site and in all the areas downstream, from excessive floods; they reduce silt-load in our rivers, so preventing the clogging of reservoirs, irrigation systems, canals, feeder streams and the flooding of housing developments in the lower areas.
An essential ingredient in all of this is greater environmental awareness, enlightened thinking; stronger governance and transparency; streamlined policies; greater co-ordination amongst divisions responsible for our living resources; improved law enforcement and the empowerment of civil society oversight.
We must value and protect our water catchment areas and our forests. Our unique biological diversity, ecosystem services and cultural heritage must be preserved for our own and above all our future generations.
Molly R. Gaskin
President: The Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust.
