Residents of Busua and other volunteers on Saturday undertook a five hour clean-up exercise at the wetlands in the community as part of the activities marking this year's World Wetlands Day at Busua.

The Coastal Resources Centre (CRC) organized the programme under its Hen Mpoana Initiative, with support from the Ahanta West District Assembly, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and ZoomLion Ghana Limited.

The Day was under the theme: "Wetlands and Water Management".

Speaking at a photo exhibition after the clean-up exercise, Mr Elvis Addai, Communications Director of CRC, appealed to residents of the area to ensure that the wetlands and the community are protected and the rubbish regularly cleaned to attract more tourists to the area.

Mr Gormey Balertey, Programme Officer of CRC, said there was the need to protect wetlands in order to reduce climate change and the impact of global warming.

He said wetlands have the capacity of absorbing carbon emissions that cause global warming and perform many ecological functions.

Mr Balertey said "Wetlands cover about 6 per cent of the world's total surface but absorbs around 17 per cent of the world's carbon emissions".

He said wetlands contain bio-diversity of animal and plant species and perform other functions including control of flooding and make it possible for fishes and migratory birds to lay and hatch eggs.