Colombo's wetlands: how the 'lungs' of Sri Lanka's capital are being restored

The revival of the critical ecosystems could provide 'valuable lessons' for the world

Photo collage of the Colombo city skyline seen from the marina, engravings of mangrove trees, a monitor lizard and an ibis. The city has been splashed over with green paint, and natural elements are dominating the picture on top of it.
(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)

The wetlands of Colombo – described by one expert as "the lungs and kidneys" of Sri Lanka's capital but long since neglected and polluted – are being restored, helping to manage floods and boost biodiversity.

Once "used as trash dumps", the wetlands have been "remade as flood-buffering parks", said the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, but despite recent progress, the ecosystems continue to face threats from urban development.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.