World Water Day celebrated in Krka National Park with the youngest rangers

World Water Day celebrated in Krka National Park with the youngest rangers
A creative workshop about water cycling processes in nature was held for pupils of the second and third grades at the Juraj Dalmatinac Primary School, Bilice district school at a beautiful location on the shores of Visovac Lake.

The limited resources of water, an element essential for life on Earth, are endangered due to their inadequate management. It is assessed that humanity can use just 1% of the freshwater of all the water on the planet. Water contains 80 unusual substances that are still partly an enigma to science. In order to raise awareness of the important of water for living beings, a two-hour workshop with the educators of Krka National Park at the held for the pupils of the Bilice district school at the educational walking trail from Stinice near Visovac Island towards the Kuželj Visovac House. The pupils learned more about the behaviour of ground water in karst areas, and made creative filters for water using different materials. The children were both curious and excited during the workshop, which focused on sharing the secrets of the karst underground with the children in a picturesque way.

The theme of this year’s World Water Day is Groundwater – making the invisible visible. Karst landscapes cover about 20% of the Earth’s land surface, and cover nearly 50% of Croatia’s land area. They are characterised by caves, pits and surface relief forms that together create unusual and spectacular landscapes. The karst areas are a source of water for about 10% of the global population, and are also habitats for rare, endangered and endemic species of the living world. Karst areas are a wealth of knowledge about our environment, climate change and mineral resources, and area of cultural heritage thanks to the life of numerous local communities in karst areas and their importance as tourism destinations.

“There are about 100 caves and pits along the course of the Krka River, and of these, 67 lie within the boundaries of Krka National Park. The caves of the Dinaric karst hold the highest biodiversity of cave species in the world, and 70% of these species are endemic to Croatia. In the speleological structures in the park, more than 170 species have been recorded, and many of these are endemic to the Dinaric Arc and to Croatia, and four are stenoendemic to Krka National Park. Most members of the cave fauna are strictly protected species,” stated director of the Public Institute of Krka National Park, Nella Slavica. She added, “With the exception of Oziđana pećina cave, the caves and pits of Krka National Park are not open to visitors, in order to protect the habitats, taxa and complete subterranean ecosystem”.

The speleological structures and karst landscapes are highly vulnerable to pollution, excessive use of natural resources and space, destruction, and poor management. That is why the public needs to be made aware of the fact that the subterranean world is important for the survival of all of life of Earth, and we need to highlight the different ways to protect karst regions and to ensure their responsible and sustainable management.

World Water Day is celebrated on 22 March. The idea to celebrate this day arose at the 1992 UN Conference on the Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro. It is exceptionally important to focus our attention on the limited resources of drinking water: up to one-fifth of the world’s population does not have access to safe water, due to excessive use, improper management, and pollution.