Nature and the City: Hand in Hand

The spill created a semi-permanent water body - 3 km long and 0.5 km wide, shallow in some places, and several metres deep in others. Over time, wildfowl started congregating here in large numbers.

Today, this is Al Wathba Wetland Reserve. About 250 bird species have been recorded here, including greater flamingos that have even bred here. Tall and elegant, they tread the shallows, their long necks lowered in feast or tucked into pink plumage in repose; their nests, low mounds of mud in the background.

Under the orders of President H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Al Wathba was declared a wetland reserve in 1998. It was afforded full protection, and brought under the management of the Abu Dhabi-based Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA). The reserve's prime role: to provide a breeding habitat for the greater flamingo and to conserve biodiversity in all its forms. It was also to be developed as an environmental education facility of importance for Abu Dhabi emirate, with visitor centre, bird hides, nature trails, interpretation and other educational amenities.

Al Wathba is just 40 minutes drive from Abu Dhabi, along the Al Ain Truck Road and appears an oasis in a desolate tract. A series of shallow pools, with water ranging from fresh through brackish and saline to hyper-saline, make up the wetland reserve. There are reed thickets crowned with feathery flower clusters; undulating sheets of sand sprinkled with tamarisk and mesquite shrubs; and sand flats criss-crossed with bird and beetle tracks that sweep down to the water.

Migratory birds stop here to rest, refuel and even breed. In the season October to April, one may see hundreds of waterfowl feeding and roosting. There are shelducks, shovelers, teals, black-winged stilts, redshanks, dunlins, little stints, curlew sandpipers, Kentish plovers…and in their midst, greater flamingos - the pride of Al Wathba!

Brine shrimps are abundant in the pools; and these provide sustenance to flamingos that started breeding here, even though the UAE is not considered within the specie's normal breeding range (they breed in the Caspian region). When breeding occurred at Al Wathba in 1993, it was the first such record of the species on mainland Arabia in over 70 years. Then it happened again in 1999, when 10 chicks were successfully fledged.

Apart from flamingos, the wetland is also a nationally important breeding site for other waders such as avocet, black-winged stilt and Kentish plover. Besides, along with avifauna are found mammals (10 species), reptiles (10 species), and plants (30 species) - all packed into a 5 sq km-area.

One meaningful aspect of wetland management will be a focus on nature education for the public, so that people can become informed about wetlands - among the world's most important, yet threatened ecosystems. Also communicated will be the message that urbanisation, industrialisation and other expressions of 'progress' need not be detrimental to wildlife conservation. They can go hand in hand. After all, here is a wildfowl refuge thriving right beside a highly built up urban area. The refuge is, as a matter of fact, based on liquid waste that the same urban area generates. Al Wathba will demonstrate how management techniques can be used to the advantage of both man and the environment.

Implementation of the visitor education facility, however, has been held up because of a paucity of funds. At this stage, therefore, the wetland reserve is not open to the public. Interested parties are required to contact ERWDA for special visits.

School groups are, however, taken to the wetland as part of their nature education programmes under the guidance of the Environmental Education and Awareness Division of ERWDA. Besides learning about wetland biodiversity, they are sensitised to how visitors should conduct themselves in a nature park. Respect all elements and components of the wetland; minimise noise so as not to disturb the birds and other creatures; bring binoculars to enjoy bird watching; walk only on marked trails; and don't remove rocks and stones, or damage plants, as these would destroy life forms that may not be visible, are some of the tips given to students.