Guidelines for Western Province Wetlands Zoning & Relevant Regulations

The region's wetland network is the macroscale natural drainage network affording vital stormwater drainage and flood detention, thus protecting high land from flood and making it available for intensive urban development at little or no cost. Most wetlands also serve as "green lungs" and as essential open spaces visually, spatially and climate-wise, for human health (both physical and mental), comfort and recreation. Many wetlands are high in biodiversity and some of them are significant biodiversity reserves. However, in view of the large percentage of wetlands in the Western Province and the lack of infrastructure serving all high land available for development, some filling for development purposes has to be permitted. This could include use of wetlands for carefully planned and implemented public infrastructure projects such as highway development, solid waste management projects and sewage disposal projects, where more suitable land is not available. Nevertheless, it is recognized that most of the wetlands should be conserved and some preserved in order to ensure that the expected urban development in the province is sustainable. This is crucially important in view of flood disaster prevention, considering the tropical monsoon climate of the region and its vulnerability to both the south-west and north-east monsoons as well as inter monsoonal rains and future increased extreme storm events to be expected because of climate change. 3 Approximately 20 % of the Western Province is composed of wetlands and the wetlands in the western province could be classified as follows: I. Deep freshwater marshes and swamps II. Shallow freshwater marsh including some abandoned clay pits and similar abandoned mining areas. III. Recently abandoned paddy fields IV. Paddy fields V. Other wetland agriculture areas such as reed/rush fields, low-lying grasslands (often used as grazing grounds) “Keera-Kola” fields & certain "ovita" areas VI. Water bodies (such as estuaries, lagoons, lakes and some abandoned clay pits) and waterways, including sea-grass beds. VII. Mangrove areas. The Goal of Wetland Zoning in the Western Province is to facilitate environmentally & economically sustainable use of wetlands considering their intrinsic potential, their ecology and the needs of the surrounding population, while maintaining essential flood storage capacity and other environmental benefits. These guidelines should be applied to all Urban Local Authority areas in the Western Province. II ZONING A series of workshops both within the UDA and interagency, the latter involving the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Urban Development and all other related Government and Non Government Agencies, led to definition of 5 basic zones: 1. Wetland Protection Zone. 2. Wetland Nature Conservation Zone. 3. Wetland Agriculture Zone. 4. Special Paddy Cultivation Zone. 5. Low-lying Potential Development Zone.