Ms Gavindya Kawshani, BSc (Hons)
INTRODUCTION
The city of Colombo (Sri Lanka) is built around wetlands. It is the first capital city in the world to receive a Ramsar Convention’s accreditation. These aesthetically pleasing and biodiverse wetlands provide numerous services to a city harbouring a human population of 3417 persons/Km2. The objective was to study the water quality changes over time to explore realistic wetland management options within the city of Colombo.
METHOD
In a pilot study, water quality was measured in the Heen Ela marsh, which is part of the Colombo Wetland complex. With an area of 46 hectares the marsh is impacted by the rapid suburban development where interconnecting effluent canals bring in heavy loads of pollutants