Where the water used to be, cracked earth now spreads across parts of the Lukanga Swamps. Canoes rest on dry ground. Fishermen return with smaller catches or none at all. In many parts of Zambia, what were once reliable wetland waterscapes are slowly shrinking, season after season. For communities that depend on these wetlands to survive, the change is no longer distant. It is here.

Wetlands such as swamps, marshes, dambos, and floodplains are not wastelands. They are among the most valuable ecosystems on the planet. In Zambia, covering about 3.6 million hectares or 4.8 percent of the total country area, they play a crucial role in supporting livelihoods and maintaining ecosystem functions: providing water for farming and livestock, fish breeding, habitats for flora and fauna, fertile soil for seasonal crops, and vegetation for building and grazing. Wetlands also help regulate floods, recharge groundwater, and act as natural buffers against climate extremes and carbon sinks. They are a living system and must be kept alive, against all odds.

Yet, across the country, wetlands such as the Lukanga Swamps, Bangweulu, the Kafue Flats, and the Barotse Floodplains, which include eight of Zambia’s Ramsar sites, covering a total of 40,305 square kilometers, are under growing pressure from human activities and climatic changes. Agriculture is encroaching. Man-made infrastructure cuts through these delicate ecosystems. Destruction of fish breeding sites and industrial pollution are rising. Coupled with climatic extremes, the consequences ripple far beyond the loss of biodiversity; they reach kitchens, markets, and family incomes.