Monrovia – Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday, February 2, celebrated World Wetland Day with a call to citizens to desist from polluting Wetlands in Liberia.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh – [email protected]
The EPA’s celebration of the day follows a Presidential proclamation by President George Weah, who declared Friday February 2, as Wetland Day and was observed throughout Liberia as working holiday.
The celebration was marked with an all-out cleanup campaign in the Slipway Community in Monrovia by a team from the agency and the community dwellers and climaxed with an indoor program held at the Slipway Public School near the bank of the Du River that has suffered massive pollution over the years.
Giving the overview of wetlands and their importance, EPA’s Assistant Manager of Environmental Research, John K. Jallah, Jr. noted that in order to have a safe environment, Liberians must preserve and keep the wetlands.
“In order for us to have a very safe environment, a very good and sustained city for us to live and all of our future to come, it is very much important that we preserve and keep our wetlands.”
“Once we do that, we will help minimize water borne diseases and flood erosion, and help to stabilize the soil from all kinds of flood. Ensure that you preserve, sustain and protect your wetland because it offers a future that is livable for everyone,” Jallah said.
Also speaking, the former Executive Director of EPA, Jerome Nyenkan thanked the management team at the EPA and called for more budgetary allotment to the agency to fully implement its mandate.
“I want to call upon this new government to bring the environmental management to the center stage of its governing agenda. Far too long in the national budgetary process, environment has been way down the list.”
“I am calling on the Government of Liberia to pay keen attention to the operation of the EPA by empowering the EPA, especially at budgetary level for proper environmental management,” he noted.
Mr. Nyenkan, currently a Professor at the state run University of Liberia, stressed that the proper management and protection of wetlands is crucial to the sustainability of marine plant and animal species.
Held under the theme, ‘Save the Wetland, save the future’, the celebration brought together key stakeholders holders, students and ordinary citizens.
Madam Benetta W. Gogbar, the Human Resource Manager and the highest ranking official at the agency in the absence of an appointment of an executive director, extolled her team for the proper execution of the program and pledged her commitment to properly manage the agency until a appointment is made by the President.
The Deputy Country Director of Conservation International (CI), Peter Mulbah assured the students of the Slipway Public School that his organization will initiate environmental programs at the school and called for a collaborative effort in the fight for the environment, noting “in saving the environment there is no small person or big person business.”
In the Presidential proclamation, Friday’s observation of Wetlands Day was intended to focus mainly on the importance of wetlands, their values and benefits and the Ramsar Convention.
The convention on Wetlands of International Importance known as Ramsar Convention was adopted in the Iranian City of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspien Sea for the sustainable use of wetlands; recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific and recreational values.
The day has been celebrated by all UN member countries since 1997.