Parys Wetland Park Project
The Parys Wetland park is located in Parys, Free State, South Africa. This urban wetland, owned by the Ngwathe Local Municipality, is located in the center of town, connecting the CBD, industrial area, and communities from the surrounding suburbs. The rehabilitation and conservation of the Parys Wetland Park is ongoing and privately funded by corporate investors and local community. Registered as a non-profit company, the local Wetland Park Committee works closely with local authorities, community, local business and industries to preserve and transform this previously neglected landscape into a diverse, inclusive, and sustainable ecosystem.
Key aspects of the Parys Wetland Park
The transformation of the Parys Wetland Park is rooted in the integration between a sensitive natural environment and the community who closely interacts with it every day. With no permanent brick and mortar structures or commercial activity in sight, the Parys Wetland Park is known to many simply as a shortcut through the veld to get to school or work, a grazing area for cattle, and even a place where firewood is occasionally harvested. But, beneath it all lies a very sensitive and fully functional wetland, fed by a clean natural spring that has been quenching the community for generations, and forming a critical ecological, cultural, and social corridor through the town of Parys.
