It won’t be obscuring the truth that Kolkata’s survival depends on the vast wetlands to the east of the city, said to be the largest manmade wastewater recovery system in the world. It is the largest ensemble of sewage fed fishponds in the world in one place.
The wetlands cover an area of about 125 sq km starting just off EM Bypass and extending as far as eye can see. The wastewater and sewage created by the city flow here following natural inclination of the land topography.
Collected in salt marshes and meadows, sewage farms and settling ponds, the nutrients of the wastewater help in sustaining fish production and agriculture that find ready selling in city markets. In the process the wetlands have saved the city from developing and maintaining costly wastewater treatment facilities.
Though this has been going on for ages, no particular attention befell the wetlands till recently. Kolkata is on an expansion binge and since it is bound by the Hooghly river to the west and so difficult to spread, the focus has automatically shifted to the east.
And there lies the danger of the wetlands getting converted into concrete jungle thus endangering city’s sewage facilities.
Fortunately, the wetlands have a stamp of rarity in the form of its being designated as a “wetland of international importance” under the Ramsar Convention on August 19, 2002. To quote Wikipedia:
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e. to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational value.
What this effectively means is that for retaining Ramsar recognition there must be no wrong utilization of land in Kolkata wetlands. Spurred by this development and also due to incessant pressure by environmental groups in the city, the state government has promulgated controls to preserve the vast water body.
In a meeting yesterday in the city, the state government has decided to pull down more than 30 illegal structures built on the wetlands over past few years. It has been found that there are 2 types of encroachers who pose threat to the wetlands and will be asked to leave the place as soon as possible.
Some of them are local people who are living there for many years and have extended their homes due to increase in family-size. For them the rules may be relaxed because their non-concrete structures do not pose as much threat as the outsiders who have built facilities there for business interest.
The outsiders will have to pull down their structures and move away at the earliest.
It inspires confidence that the government has woken up to look after the wetlands in earnest. Plans are now afoot to create a park there on the lines of the famous Hong Kong Wetland Park that will have world-class conservation, education and tourism facilities.
If done well, Kolkata will soon have another feather in its cap in the form of a unique tourist destination. Let’s welcome that.
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