Contents of August 2002

EDITORIAL

UPFRONT

Business
Government
Civil Society
Construction
Mining
Water
Energy
Forestry
Tourism
Waste Management
Chemicals
Transport
Places to visit

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EDITORIAL

We did it together!
I remember the news coverage that was given to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit very well. I was a student in landscape architecture at the University of Pretoria at that time. It was with much idealism that my class embraced the concept of sustainable development. The term was used in every project presentation, every lecture, every student debate, sometimes with a naïvety that made us believe that soon the entire world’s problems would be solved.

A lot of positive events followed. The ‘spirit of the time’ reflected reconciliation. In South Africa, a democratic government was voted in after many years of apartheid rule – a system that promoted under-development and resultant environmental degradation. The new government initiated the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) – followed by many other bureaucratic interventions with the aim of uplifting the previously disadvantaged and the poor. It cannot be denied that most South Africans today are better off than in 1992. However, in many cases short term development goals have outweighed longer term social and environmental benefits. Sustainable development often remains a meaningless buzz-word.

Ten years after the Earth Summit, this morning I drove to the offices of Brooke Pattrick Publications located in what has become a ‘less desirable’ part of the city. ‘Our’ street was lined with litter (the result of a municipal workers’ strike) with one corner resembling a mini-landfill – rubbish of all sorts (mostly generated by food packaging) spilled over the entire pavement. In the last week squatters have been removed from a dilapidated suburban house in this same street. Exotic syringa (Melia azedarach) trees line the pavements – a notorious (recently declared) invader, these trees have caused a lot of damage to indigenous biodiversity in our river courses. It made me wonder if we have made any progress since Rio. In spite of ten years of ‘environmental and social consciousness’, our street symbolises poverty and environmental degradation. Yet, the many case studies described in this publication certainly spell out hope!

The Earth Summit of ’92 made the world aware of the self destructive nature of human behaviour. The blame has often been laid at the door of business – big and small – that chases profit without consideration for social and environmental issues. In this publication, we have endeavored to showcase the commitment of business to sustainable development. It is only through continued economic development – in which business will play a leading role – that the world can take care of its environmental and social problems. However, this economic development needs to change considerably from the excessively consumptive nature of earlier economic advances.

It has been encouraging to learn about the many business initiatives that are benefiting the poor and the environment while working on this special Summit edition. One cannot deny that there are those who exploit both people and the environment for their own enrichment, and yet there are many – as described in this edition – that are more responsible.

In this issue, there are a number of articles featuring projects and initiatives which have resulted directly from Johannesburg’s hosting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The City of Johannesburg has gone to great lengths to upgrade certain public parks and roads, and to clean up the environment. The business community, in partnership with various public agencies, has played an important role – and two projects, in my opinion, deserve special mention: the Johannesburg Climate Legacy (article on page 192) and the Water Neutral initiative (article on page 185). Both are linked to the Greening the Summit initiative that is striving to minimise the negative environmental impact caused by the influx of delegates into the city, while facilitating community empowerment projects. This publication is participating in both!

Allow me to thank the members of our team who have dedicated so much of their time to the production of the South African section of this publication: Michelle Nel, Leigh Darroll and Carol Knoll who wrote the bulk of the articles, and Darryl James who spent many overtime hours ensuring that the layout was finished on time. Most importantly, I want to thank Peter Ritchie who introduced me to the Sustainable Development International team – an introduction that made it possible to put out this joint venture publication that showcases sustainable development both in the international arena and on home ground in the host country. We did it together!
Gerald Garner
Publishing Editor

A fundamental positive shift
Welcome to this special edition. It is the result of a joint venture between Sustainable Development International and Urban Green File, a local South African publisher. This relationship has involved knowledge transfer and is intended to be a working example of a north-south partnership. As well as international content, this issue also documents some local best case practices that can be visited from the Summit itself, showcasing transferable solutions and examples of working partnerships in action.

At the Rio + 5 meetings in 1997, it was generally agreed that things had got progressively worse since the Earth Summit in ‘92, with the divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ growing at a frightening rate. So are we doing any better now? While not struck by a wave of blinding optimism, I feel we can be cautiously hopeful. I am always cheered by the wealth of projects exemplifying the concepts of Agenda 21, delivering real results for real people. A pertinent example of this is the ‘Afghan women’s struggle behind the veil’ story on p.61, which demonstrates the power of multi-stakeholder dialogue and community involvement in times of great crisis and its impact on daily lives.

However, for all the success stories, we cannot escape the fact that the general global inertia is becoming more and more of an obstacle to sustainable development. In an e-questionnaire I sent out a few months ago, I asked the question ‘What do you hope that the Summit achieves?’ On the whole, the southern hemisphere responded with optimism, in contrast with the northern hemisphere’s attitude of ‘It’s not in our backyard, it’s not our problem.’ This short-sighted inertia is exactly what needs to be addressed if true change can be brought about. The other interesting result from the questionnaire was that out of thousands of responses, only one person explained what they were doing as an individual to minimise waste, reduce energy use and recycle products. This shows the Summit must address the need to mobilise individuals in their own homes, moving sustainable development away from being just a debating table “buzz-word”, as Gerald says on the opposite page, to a real activity with tangible results.

Despite this gloomy outlook there has been a fundamental positive shift. When I first started publishing Sustainable Development International 4 years ago, people were discussing the need for civic, public and private sectors to establish meaningful dialogue, something that is now happening more and more often. Business has to be involved in the process of sustainable development and of making projects happen as, by encouraging business to behave responsibly, we are actively pursuing the goal of sustainable development. Viewing business as a big bad giant is not progressive or practical as it is often necessary to provide financial backing and technical know how. By engaging with business, including some of its more controversial sectors, there is every chance of positively influencing the lives of the millions of people affected by it.

Sustainable Development is a journey and this Summit provides a unique opportunity for all areas of society to take their first steps together in the right direction.

I would like to thank all the authors and writers who have contributed to this edition. It is intended to exemplify a working north-south partnership, hopefully one of many that result from this Summit.
Charles Green
Publisher

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UPFRONT

Biodiversity publication
The Biodiversity of South Africa 2002: Indicators, Trends and Human Impacts is a 32 page soft-covered document, the compilation of which was done by the Endangered Wildlife Trust and made possible through grant funding from The Green Trust, a subsidiary trust of WWF-SA in a mutual benefit partnership with Nedbank. The final publication was sponsored by Nedbank Green in the interests of protecting the country’s natural wealth.

Biodiversity, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Ecology, is a term used to describe all aspects of biological diversity, especially including species richness, ecosystem complexity and genetic variation.

The new publication describes it as: “the natural wealth of the Earth, which supplies all our food and much of our shelter and raw materials... from which the world makes regular withdrawals, inexorably depleting the bank account at a more rapid rate than deposits are made.... Loss of biodiversity affects the poorest of the poor first.... On a global scale, the rapid changes in biological diversity may threaten the maintenance of fundamental ecological processes on which we all depend for survival.”

This South African report has chosen to reflect the status of a selection of flagship species to highlight the overall condition of the habitats in which they live, and it includes biodiversity tables for each of South Africa’s ecological regions. These are Fynbos, Forest, Nama Karroo, Succulent Karroo, Savanna, Thicket, Grassland, Freshwater, Estuarine and Marine ecoregions. An introductory table illustrates the extraordinary number of endemic (occurring nowhere else in the world) species that characterise the South African flora and fauna. The publication gives the Ecological Footprint Analysis for South Africa. This is an index used to estimate human pressure on the Earth, resulting from humanity’s consumption of natural resources. The broad conclusion is that South Africa is currently on an unsustainable path.

In the concluding section, Dr Belinda Reyers of the Conservation Planning Unit at Pretoria University replies to the question of where we should focus our conservation efforts in South Africa by saying that we need to identify areas where human threats are the highest and evaluate what these threats mean to the biodiversity of the region. The National Land Cover Database based on satellite imagery, used in conjunction with Low & Rebelo’s map of the Vegetation Types of South Africa, allows areas where the vegetation has been transformed or degraded to be identified. The conclusion is that it is largely the vegetation types in the grassland, forest and fynbos regions that have been affected by human impacts.

The following vegetation types within these regions have very little remaining natural vegetation and what is left is often fragmented: West Coast Renosterveld (8% remaining), Sand Plain Fynbos (34%), Dry Clay Highveld Grassland (32%), South and Southwest Coast Renosterveld (34%), Short Mistbelt Grassland (35%). Of the 68 vegetation types, 17 were identified as areas of concern due to the fact that over 40% of their extent is impacted on by land use threats.

Reyers’ important concluding comment is that mainstreaming biodiversity considerations into socio-economic agendas is a central tenet for the conservation of biodiversity in South Africa.
To obtain copies of the publication contact Alex Hetherington Media. Email: central@ahmedia.co.za 

Successful biological control: Sesbania and Azolla
Invasive alien plants are a huge environmental problem in South Africa and world-wide and the principles of integrated pest management used to control these plants, the worst of which are listed in amendments to the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act, include chemical, mechanical and biological controls. Biological weed control involves the use of natural enemies (insects, mites or pathogens) from the country of the plant’s origin, after testing them in quarantine for host-specificity, to reduce the vigour or reproductive potential of the harmful plant. South Africa has several biocontrol success stories including Sesbania punicia (red sesbania) and Azolla filiculoides (red water fern).

Red sesbania is a deciduous shrub from South America which has invaded rivers and water courses in South Africa, where it restricts access, increases erosion and depletes valuable water resources. A biological control programme was launched in the 1980s and long-term evaluation studies of the programme have proved that S.punicia is under complete biological control in this country. Three species of weevils have been established in South Africa and they are controlling the weed so successfully that, if all three agents are present, no other control measures are necessary. The host-specific weevils are the sesbania flower bud weevil, the sesbania seed weevil and the sesbania stem-borer.

The larvae of the flower bud weevil hatch and feed on the immature flower reducing pod production by more than 98%, in dense infestations of the weed and in the warmer regions of the country. In colder regions because of migration and mortality, large numbers of the beetles need to be re-released in early spring as the buds are forming. The seed weevil, the larvae of which feed on the seeds inside the pod, on its own may well destroy 84% of all the seeds that are set, while together with the flower bud weevil it is even more successful. Together the two weevil species ensure that hardly any ripe seeds of sesbania survive, thus preventing the plant from dispersing. Seeds in the soil have a lifetime of only about four years, so if both insect species are well established and the plants are no longer producing seeds, the existing plants can be cleared after a few years without danger of any more seedlings germinating. Instead of clearing the existing plants mechanically or chemically, the stem-borer can be released and the existing plants killed. The larvae of this agent feed on the transport tissue in the stem – thus effectively ring-barking the plants.

The red water fern is a free-floating, South American aquatic fern that is invasive on still and slow-moving water bodies in South Africa, especially in nutrient-rich water. Dense mats of the weed cover entire water bodies, degrading aquatic ecosystems. The lack of sunlight causes the death of organisms resulting in massive decay and putrefaction, with the resultant deterioration of water quality. The fern mat harbours disease-causing organisms, increases the siltation of rivers, prevents access to the water and clogs up irrigation canals, pipes and pumps. Cattle drownings are caused when the animals mistake the mats for turf and try to walk on them.

The Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI) launched a biocontrol programme with the release of a host-specific weevil in late 1997. The success of this project has been so exceptional that it ranks among the world’s most spectacular biological weed control projects. Wherever the weevil was released, the mats of red water fern collapsed and disappeared in less than a year. Most of the cleared water bodies are still free of the fern and the weevils have dispersed unaided to infested water bodies kilometers from the nearest release sites. When resurgences of A. filiculoides occurred after initial control, the weevils rapidly re-colonised the weed.

Two aspects of the success are unique: the fact that the insects almost totally eradicate the target weed, and the rapid destruction of the weed. The control of red water fern is now possible and affordable to landowners and communities everywhere, irrespective of their infrastructure and economic resources. Starter colonies of the insect are supplied at a mere R114. Herbicidal control is much more expensive and environmentally unsound, also making the water unfit for human consumption, whereas the weevils can be released on any water body without fear of pollution. After the initial release, the insects multiply and disperse unaided by human intervention.
Contact Linda Mabulu at the PPRI. Email: rietlm@plant2.agric.za

Dr Guy Preston honoured at 2002 Green Trust Awards
The finalists and winners in the Green Trust Awards are prime examples of the close link between ‘people, prosperity and the planet’ and are a demonstration of how local projects and people uphold the principles of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The overall winners this year were (in the Emerging Category), the Rainwater Harvesting Project, an innovative school-based programme in the semi-arid Limpopo Province, and (in the Established Category) the Mondi Wetlands Project (see article on page 204).

This year, a Special Achievement Award was conferred on Dr Guy Preston in recognition of his outstanding contribution and dedication to numerous initiatives in the realm of water conservation and development in South Africa. In particular, the award recognises Dr Preston’s role in establishing and driving the Working for Water Programme. This world-renowned conservation initiative, in which the Department of Water and Forestry (DWAF) is the lead agent, tackles the threat of invasive alien vegetation to South Africa’s scarce water resources. The programme has done an initial clearance of over 700000 ha of land to date and completed follow-up work on 500 000 ha. It currently provides employment to 24 000 people in 313 projects in all nine provinces. It is designed to achieve its environmental objective while assisting the most marginalised in society. DWAF pumped over R400 million into Working for Water projects last year.

Chief Executive of WWF-SA Tony Frost commented: “Working for Water has received this support from the government because of Preston’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that environmental goals are not tackled in isolation but are firmly rooted in a broader strategy to achieve social and economic goals.” Dr Preston has played an active role in other water projects, including the National Water Conservation Campaign, the Greater Hermanus Water Conservation Programme, the 20/20 Vision for Schools water audit project and Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop (see article on page246). “Through all these initiatives, DrPreston’s passion, integrity and dedication to social justice have shone through,” says Frost.

JHB ART CITY

JHB ART CITY is the ‘outdoor art gallery’ conceived by Wits student Saul Symanowitz which has been translated into an impressive public/private project intended to enliven the city over the period of the World Summit, the Arts Alive International Festival that follows it and on to the Cricket World Cup in March next year. The project has two sets of objectives. The first is to promote South African art and artists to the public, while the second is to showcase the numerous urban renewal projects that are currently underway in the inner city. The JHB ART CITY art route will connect the new temporary ‘wall hangings’ with the permanent artworks related to the new development initiatives that are taking place: such as Metro Mall in Newtown, Mary Fitzgerald Square, Nelson Mandela Bridge, Constitution Hill and many others.

The Johannesburg Art City Competition drew 170 entries and of these 20 have been selected by a panel of experts to be displayed in the city, while another 10 are reproductions of works of art housed in special collections away from the public eye – in the Absa, BHP Billiton, Nedcor, SABC, Sasol and Standard Bank buildings – giving the public an opportunity to view these works. All the artworks have been digitally photographed, scanned and enlarged onto huge canvasses which are fastened to aluminium frames for display on the bare walls of prominent city buildings..... ‘COMING SOON TO A WALL NEAR YOU!

JHB ART CITY is a collaborative effort between the City Council, the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP), the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition (JICBC) and the Johannesburg Development Agency, and is supported by Business and Arts South Africa.

In a massive public participation exercise, the public will be asked to vote for their favourite work of art in Johannesburg’s outdoor art gallery.

Neil Fraser, executive director of the CJP and JICBC commenting on the ART CITY project said: “This is an important milestone in the city’s urban renewal process, that we have been associated with for over the past ten years. With substantial investment starting to flow back into the city, it is time to attract the public back to see what is being done – and to move negative perceptions to the reality of the positive changes that have and are taking place.”

In Neil Fraser’s Citichat (a free weekly publication concerning cities and Johannesburg in particular) he quotes from Public Art in the Urban Landscape: “Art creates a sense of place, it reflects a social theory about the place and displays a style that is attributed to the space. Art is often used in a public place to give it character, to make the place interesting, or simply to beautify it. People remember a place because of the artwork that exists in the space – the art acts as a symbol of the place.”
For tours along the ART CITY route contact Peta Thomas. Tel: (011) 688 7800. Cell: 082 811 0045. Email: info@cjp.co.za  Website: www.jhbartcity.org.za

Enviro-Info 2001
The Enviro-Info 2001 CD is derived from the Environmental Potential Atlas (ENPAT) which is an interactive planning tool serving as an educational and information source aimed at students and high school pupils, tourists – especially the overseas visitor – and any person interested in the South African environment, such as Interested &Affected Parties in an environmental controversy.

Enviro-Info 2001 contains 240 national and provincial maps on a variety of environmental topics, including both biophysical and social data. These maps include, for example, the concentration of sensitive fauna, indicating the total number of sensitive species; a map indicating biological productivity; maps showing biomes; a map indicating the dominant language distribution per magisterial district; maps showing drainage regions and primary catchments in South Africa; and maps indicating: areas susceptible to erosion, geological associations, land use, mining intensity, terrain morphology, population density, rainfall, biospheres, Ramsar sites and more.

Additional information covers amongst other topics environmental terminology, your environmental rights, waste management, environmental careers, how to establish an eco-club, World Heritage Sites, Transfrontier Conservation Areas and the World Summit. Apart from the internet links throughout the CD, extensive web directories are also provided – close to 40 South African environmental websites, 60 international environmental websites and more than 100 South African tourism web sites.
CDs (at R30 a copy) can be ordered from Gwen Breedlove at University of Pretoria.    Tel: (012) 420 2583.Email: gbreedlo@postino.up.ac.za

Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve: Showcase project for WSSD
This 615 ha nature reserve is 11 km south of central Johannesburg and is one of Johannesburg City Parks’ showcase projects for the World Summit. It is the largest council owned nature reserve in Johannesburg and the objective is to develop and conserve the natural, historical and cultural aspects of the reserve, through the establishment of ecotourism infrastructure and appropriate management strategies, for the recreational use of local residents and tourists.

The Klipriviersberg is the only ridge system left virtually intact in Johannesburg. In the draft policy for the protection of ridges, recently written by Gauteng’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs (DACEL), the Klipriviersberg falls into Class 2 ridges which are between 5-35% transformed and a ‘no-go’ development policy has been recommended for these areas. No further subdivisions will be allowed and only low impact tourism developments will be considered, with a full Environmental Impact Assessment and a full set of specialist reports. A Strategic Environmental Assessment has already been completed for the Klipriviersberg ridge system.

The vegetation is of the Bankenveld grassland type dominated by grass species but rich in flowering herbaceous and bulbous plants. A winter survey identified 213 plant species in the reserve, while 130 bird species have been recorded, along with 12 mammals, 10 reptiles and 3amphibians. The reserve includes numerous stone walled Iron Age sites of the Tswana people and the ruined buildings (circa 1850) of the Voortrekker Sarel Marais’ farmstead.

The initial upgrade in preparation for the Summit has involved the erection of game fencing, along with stretches of palisade fencing in more vulnerable areas along the perimeter of the reserve, to improve security and stop illegal dumping, hunting, uncontrolled collecting of medicinal plants and joy-riding 4x4s and quadbikes. Additional security will be provided by patrolling mounted River Rangers.

A steel and timber bridge across the Bloubosspruit (a tributary of the Kliprivier) has been designed to facilitate access from the Klipriviersberg Recreation Centre to the rudiments of the Batswana-Sotho village which is in the process of being built. The concept of the village has been designed by Prof Revil Mason, formerly Professor of Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand. Preliminary restoration is being done to stabilise the Marais homestead to avoid further deterioration of the structure, which along with its outbuildings qualifies as a Heritage Site. Invasive alien vegetation is being eradicated in a joint venture with DACEL, which has also assisted Johannesburg City Parks in creating firebreaks. Walking trails through the reserve have been upgraded.
For information on walking trails and outrides, contact the following. Noel Thornton of the Klipriviersberg Management Committee. Tel: (011) 682 1495. Malcolm Holman of Ecodad. Cell: 083 337 6613. Greg Martin of the River Rangers. Cell: 082 645 0248.

Green Electricity for the main World Summit venues
AGAMA Energy, a green energy services company based in Cape Town, is to co-ordinate the supply of Green Electricity to the main venues at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. By mid-May four venues had committed to buying Green Electricity for the full duration of the Summit – Hilton Hotel, Sandton Convention Centre, the Expo Centre and the Ubuntu Village. This is a Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism initiative that is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Green Electricity, also called Green Power, is generated in a sustainable manner from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, wave, geothermal, biomass and hydro energy. This is a very different product from the conventional coal or nuclear (in the case of uranium) derived electricity – because both these resources will ultimately be exhausted.

At present, there is about 50 MW of green generation capacity in the South African power pool – enough energy to fulfil the needs of 20 000 households. New Green Electricity plants (see article on page 189) are currently under construction: the Darling Wind Farm, within the Oelsner Group, is planned for 10 turbines; Eskom’s proposed wind energy facility in the Western Cape is planned at a scale of 10 MW; and the Coega Energy Company is currently developing a 7 MW wind farm near Port Elizabeth.

In addition to its environmental, safety, water saving and health benefits, Green Electricity by its decentralised nature offers opportunities for small investors and entrepreneurs. Green Electricity can be generated by anyone with access to sufficient renewable resources and the technical and financial capacity to implement an engineering project.

So far, a handful of small green electricity producers in South Africa are providing an example of how smaller scale projects can contribute to the green electricity market. These include three solar-powered BP filling stations, which put 21 kW each into the grid; a 1,1 kW grid-connected solar system and a 750 W wind system in Galeshewe, Northern Cape; and a grid-connected solar system that has been operating in Clifton, Western Cape, for the past decade.

The proposed regulatory and trading regime for a Green Electricity market, as developed by the project team with the National Electricity Regulator (NER), adopts the internationally established approach of green power certificates (or tradeable renewable energy certificates). Established Green Electricity markets in the US, Europe and Australasia have refined this framework over the past decade.

This certificate approach ensures that customers can be assured that any Green Electricity which they purchase on a voluntary basis from a supplier, in terms of a Green Electricity tariff, has in fact been generated by a certificated Green Power Producer and delivered into the national grid for supply at the point of consumption.

Green Power certificates may be issued by the NER, to any power producer – at any scale of production and anywhere on the national grid – for sale to any electricity supplier who may wish to sell a voluntary Green Electricity product to its customers. The Green Electricity sale is therefore backed up by certificates which confirm that green sources have been used to generate an equivalent amount of electricity to that which has been sold as Green Electricity. The certificates are an accounting and auditing system for electricity production and consumption which encourages the replacement of less sustainable electricity supply options with more sustainable ones.

One goal of the Green Electricity project is to help reduce and reverse the adverse climate changes caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The project will lead the way for a government backed Green Electricity market and set the stage for local and foreign investment in renewable energy.

“The growth in electricity demand in South Africa is expected to outstrip the existing capacity within the next “3-5years” says Glynn Morris, managing director of AGAMA. “And then there is the risk of what is known as ‘rolling blackouts’. It is essential that South Africa should create new electricity capacity and this means that we have a rare opportunity – to make an informed and considered choice about the sustainability of that electricity supply.”

WSSD parallel event on Environmental Impact Assessment
The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) has teamed up with the IUCN Regional Environmental Assessment Programme (REAP) in Nepal, the Regional Environmental Centre in Szentendre and the Southern African Institute for Environmental Assessment (SAIEA) based in Namibia to host a World Summit parallel event, in the form of a one day seminar.

The following issues will be dealt with during the event:
•            progress reports on international trends, issues and prospects;
•            global priorities for Impact Assessment;
•            regional reports on progress in environmental assessment practice
•            international legal and policy instruments relevant to Impact Assessment and their role in capacity building; and
•            a focus panel on capacity building: lessons learnt and programme of action.

A document providing a detailed review of the last ten years of Impact Assessment written by an international team co-ordinated by Barry Sadler will provide a springboard for discussion about future trends in Impact Assessment – the document can be accessed on the IAIAsa website.

The event will be held on Sunday 1 September from 9:00 to 17:00 at the Liban Conference and Banqueting Centre, Johannesburg. Contact Glaudin Kruger for reservations. Tel: 028 316 2905. Email: kruger@jaywalk.com.  Check IAIAsa website for up-to-date details: www.iaia.za.org 

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BUSINESS

The eyes of the world will be upon South Africa during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). It is important for South Africa as the host country to do its very best to assist in ensuring that the Summit is a success as it has the potential to bring us important benefits, including economic growth.

As can be seen in this special Summit issue of Urban Green File, business and industry are taking this event very seriously, and from the outset have been involved in, and represented at, all of the preparatory meetings. The business community recognises that important decisions will be made at the WSSD and that the event will provide it with an important opportunity to engage with other stakeholders regarding sustainable development. Furthermore, the Summit will create a broader engagement platform for implementation of the outcomes.

I have the privilege of chairing the Business Council for Sustainable Development – South Africa (BCSD:SA), an organisation that promotes the concept of sustainable development in business and which is helping to facilitate the involvement of the business sector in the Summit. We do this within our membership, and through the Business Co-ordinating Forum (BCF), which is a temporary body of organised South African business. As part of its mandate, the BCF has assisted and supported the government in developing a South African position for the Summit.

Business and industry in South Africa can no longer afford to ignore the principles of sustainable development. Today’s world is increasingly demanding that we look beyond just profit making and perform in the social and environmental arenas. Those companies that are able to do this will be better equipped to meet the challenges of the future, while maintaining a competitive advantage.

We would like to congratulate Urban Green File for bringing the all-important issues of sustainable development and the Summit to its readership. We at the BCSD:SA hope that readers are able to take advantage of the opportunities that the WSSD offers or, at least, enjoy some of the many exciting events that will be taking place.

Carlos Poñe, Chairman BCSD: SA

BCSD: SA, formed originally as the IEF in 1991, represents a broad spectrum of SA business and industry. Members include senior individuals from some 58 leading corporations, committed to implementing sound social and environmental practices in their business operations, with associate members drawn from academic and environmental service sectors. During the extensive changes that have taken place since its inception, BCSD:SA has adapted its role to meet the changing needs of its membership. Activities extend from policy development, to environmental training and the monitoring and communication of international environmental trends. BCSD: SA works with business to extend the understanding of sustainability and to identify areas of opportunity and implementation in diverse industrial and business contexts. It is the regional chapter of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a coalition of 150international companies, with members drawn from more than 30 countries and 20major industrial sectors, who share a commitment to sustainable development.

Indexing sustainability in South African business
In our fast-changing business context and amid growing demands globally for transparency and sustainability in business practice, the idea of a Sustainability Index for South African companies has been mooted.  Dr Zoë Budnik-Lees, executive director of the Business Council for Sustainable Development: South Africa, spoke about this concept.

Changing business practice
In a series of documents that it has issued relating to the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Business Council for Sustainable Development: South Africa (BCSD: SA – formerly the Industrial Environmental Forum (IEF)) outlines some of the key developments of recent years that demonstrate a shift in business practice in South Africa towards sustainability. Like the King Report on corporate governance, such developments bear out the fact that there is a growing recognition of ‘the business case for sustainable development’.

More and more companies are beginning to realise that business and industry will survive only if efforts are directed towards alleviating poverty and bringing patterns of production and consumption into line with the ecological limits of the planet. At the same time, business is beginning to recognise environmental and sustainability issues less as threats (as has traditionally been the case) and more as sources of competitive advantage. The evolution of tools and concepts – such as life-cycle assessment, full-cost accounting, cleaner production, industrial ecology, corporate social responsibility, environmental and social auditing and reporting, and the growth of sustainability-related investment funds – represent just some of the ways in which business is re-aligning its operations to the quest for sustainability.

Corporate demand for ISO 14001 accreditation, since the introduction of the standard in 1996, has spawned a fast-growing service industry specialising in environmental and, increasingly, sustainability audits. Demands from stakeholders and potential investors for greater transparency and accountability have seen a significant increase in environmental and social reporting, particularly amongst South African corporations seeking offshore listings, or foreign investment, or new international markets. This increase has been tracked consistently since 1993 by professional services firm KPMG in its annual surveys of financial, environmental and social reporting.

Since its establishment as the IEF in 1991 and its early focus on interaction with government and policy formulation, BCSD: SA has seen various industry sectors picking up the initiative and organising themselves around sustainability issues. This has been especially evident in sectors such as the mining, chemical, petroleum and forestry industries, which have faced challenges on environmental concerns from international trading partners. Adapting itself to this changing business world, BCSD:SA has moved into various activities that support corporate environmental management practices and the implementation of business strategies for sustainable development amongst its members. It has been a key contributor to the Business Co-ordinating Forum (BCF) in preparing for the Johannesburg Summit.

Measuring sustainability
Against this background, BCSD: SA has initiated the concept of a Sustainability Index for listed and non-listed companies in South Africa. According to Dr Budnik-Lees, this is not envisaged as a traditional financial index linked to the JSE Securities Exchange, but would rather be open to any company that chooses to participate in it.

A lot of groundwork has been done over the past 18 months to determine the criteria, the operating model and the reporting structures that would be most appropriate to such an index. This has included an assessment of the guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) which provide a standardised framework for sustainability reporting. Existing international indices, such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Group World Index and the Business in the Environment Index linked to the London Stock Exchange, have also been reviewed. Although these indices relate to investment funds, they do offer elements that can be drawn into defining the proposed South African Sustainability Index.

However, Budnik-Lees emphasises the importance of creating an index and a system of administering it that are relevant to South Africa as a developing country (and that would then be exportable to other developing countries). While there is much that can be learned from international experience, there are also areas in which South Africa holds a leading edge – particularly in relation to social issues such as corporate social responsibility programmes in education and skills training, rural development, black economic empowerment, the development of small businesses, and notably in the area of health and the treatment of HIV/Aids in the workplace – and which are of greater significance locally than they might be internationally.

BCSD:SA’s own Code of Conduct, which members are required to sign, presents a framework of integrated economic, environmental and social considerations that could inform the criteria to be developed as a measure of sustainability in business.

It is envisaged that the South African Sustainability Index would serve as:
*            an investment tool, offering local and international investors a measure of a company’s triple bottom line performance in an annual ranking;
*            a management tool, providing an annual measure of a company’s progress in respect of critical sustainability concerns; and as
*            a decision support tool, in terms of allocating and prioritising expenditure.

In addition, with the intention that the results of the index should be released publicly, it would stimulate competition – motivating greater attention to integrating economic, social and environmental concern/s – among companies large and small, and reward them with public recognition of their work.

It is proposed that the index would be managed by an independent Section 21 (not-for-profit) organisation, in order to exclude any bias from established business organisations. This special-purpose company would be responsible for the research and reporting required which, in turn, would be open to scrutiny by all stakeholders. Budnik-Lees says that the concept has been well received by the JSE Securities Exchange and by various fund managers consulted to date. The search is on for a prominent business person to champion this cause. The SA Sustainability Index is due to be launched later this year.

The Business Co-ordinating Forum
The BCF was set up expressly to co-ordinate national business initiatives in the preparations for the Johannesburg Summit, and to provide an input, on behalf of business as one of the major groups, into the national sustainable development strategy. Chaired by former Premier of Gauteng, now a leading businessman, Tokyo Sexwale, the BCF comprises representatives of companies and business associations. One of its main objectives has been to ensure that the preparatory activities for the Summit complement broader business objectives, such as promoting the image of SA abroad.

The Business Co-ordinating Forum
The BCF was set up expressly to co-ordinate national business initiatives in the preparations for the Johannesburg Summit, and to provide an input, on behalf of business as one of the major groups, into the national sustainable development strategy. Chaired by former Premier of Gauteng, now a leading businessman, Tokyo Sexwale, the BCF comprises representatives of companies and business associations. One of its main objectives has been to ensure that the preparatory activities for the Summit complement broader business objectives, such as promoting the image of SA abroad.

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GOVERNMENT

Local Agenda 21 in South Africa – key concerns
Agenda 21 was created at the first Earth Summit in Rio as a blueprint for action in every area where human activity impacts on the environment. It recommends new ways to educate, care for natural resources and design a sustainable economy. Agenda 21 has been adopted by many countries, including the majority of African countries, but has yet to make a major difference to quality of life.

Delegating planning and management responsibilities to the lowest level of public authority is part of the global shift reflected in Agenda21. Since 1994 in South Africa, a number of legislative and policy changes, beginning with the Constitutional provisions, have placed increasing responsibility on local government and expanded its role from service provision to active development. Constitutional objectives of local government include sustainable service provision, social and economic development, ensuring a healthy environment and involving communities in government matters.

Municipalities are now also required to develop integrated development plans (IDPs). Integrated development planning is a principal strategic and systematic planning instrument, which guides and informs all planning, budgeting, management and decision-making in a municipality. IDPs need to integrate areas of legislation, such as water, transport, waste management, energy, housing and local economic development (LED) plans and include representative participation of all communities and stakeholders. IDPs and Local Agenda 21 have much in common in terms of principles and processes.

However, capacity building is required to enable municipalities to deal with the extremely complex requirements of the IDPs. Given the dismal state of environmental management with respect to monitoring and compliance, the notion of multi-skilled environmental extension officers is one that needs to be explored.

Last year, multi-stakeholder awareness-raising workshops on the World Summit on Sustainable Development process were held in the provinces. These workshops revealed very low levels of understanding of Agenda 21 and sustainable development concepts amongst these groups. There is thus an urgent need for education on sustainable development.

Agenda 21 recommends the establishment of a national sustainable development co-ordination body responsible for the follow-up of Agenda 21. Since 1992, many countries have established multi-stakeholder and participatory mechanisms, often termed National Councils for Sustainable Development (NCSDs), which are forums where all major actors can negotiate and work together to incorporate sustainability into development plans. South Africa needs a multi-stakeholder co-ordinating structure for sustainable development. The Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) currently remains the lead agent championing the cause in South Africa.

As part of the reconstruction and development process in South Africa, the nation’s three largest cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban all initiated Local Agenda 21 programmes during 1994/1995 in compliance with the Local Agenda 21 mandate adopted at the 1992 United Nations’ Earth Summit. These early programmes catalysed other towns and cities such as Kimberley, Port Elizabeth, East London, Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg into initiating their own Local Agenda 21 programmes. They also provided impetus for provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Province to initiate provincial Local Agenda 21 campaigns.

In 1998, the Three Cities Network (comprising the original three cities plus Pretoria), a National Local Agenda 21 Programme, was launched by the DEAT. The first step towards implementing Agenda 21 is to put in place an environmental policy, strategy and action plans. The major metropolitan areas have all made good progress in this regard, and recently the Cape Town Unicity approved the environmental strategy developed out of the Integrated Metropolitan Environmental Policy (IMEP).

Notwithstanding the achievements of these different initiatives, there have also been serious constraints including lack of sustained political support, commitment to sustainability principles, inappropriate institutional arrangements, dependency on donor funding and lack of understanding of what sustainability entails. Some local authorities say Local Agenda 21 is still perceived as a foreign concept that does not address issues of poverty, job creation and local economic development. Local Agenda 21 has largely been located in Environmental and Planning departments and has not been adopted as a local authority-wide framework.

Agenda 21 notes a range of major groups that need to share responsibility for sustainable development and thus need to be involved on an equal basis in decision making in this regard. This equality with respect to participation has not yet been achieved in South Africa. Groups such as industry and business, with access to resources such as time, finances, skills, communication technology and information, tend to be able to use opportunities for participation more often and more effectively. Groups such as rural people, whether women, youth, indigenous peoples or farmers need practical assistance in terms of access to technical information, communications networks and transport.

Some LA21 challenges
Rural-urban migration is increasing the number of poor people in urban areas. In Africa, over 40% of urban households live in absolute poverty, while in Latin America, about 36% of women-headed households in cities are poor.

To ease the sufferings of the urban poor and promote urban development, world leaders in the Millennium Declaration agreed to achieve, by 2020, significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, as proposed in the ‘Cities without Slums’ initiative.

In Africa, 340 million people (half the population) live on less than US$1 a day. Only 58% of Africans have access to safe water. Some 41% of Africans over 15 are illiterate. Food insecurity in Africa is critical: the undernourished number 200 million out of 850million people and 65% of agricultural land has been degraded. By 2050, 4,2 billion people will be living in countries that cannot meet their basic water requirements. In developing countries, 95% of sewage and 70% of industrial waste is dumped straight into watercourses.

By the year 2025, it is estimated that about 54% of the population in developing countries will reside in urban areas.

EcoCity puts Agenda 21 into practice
The Ivory Park Eco-Village, part of the EcoCity project in Johannesburg, has been selected as a showcase project for the World Summit. The Midrand EcoCity project won the Green Trust’s Urban Renewal Award last year.

The South African Department of Housing recently confirmed that the Sustainable Homes Initiative and four of the Founding Partner Projects have been selected as best practice case studies for sustainable development in SA. The United Nations, through the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), has been promoting Local Agenda 21 initiatives to encourage town councils to change the pattern of development in their cities. Johannesburg, as a growing metropolis, has the opportunity to do things correctly if it adopts Agenda 21 principles. “We believe our projects are doing just this,” says executive director of EcoCity, Anne Sugrue.

The EcoCity Project is a partnership between an NGO, the EcoCity Trust, and the Johannesburg City Council. It was established in 1999 by the Midrand Council and is now ‘owned’ by the Johannesburg Council and driven by the EcoCity Trust. Although the Trust is tiny (three employees), EcoCity is a large team of people ranging from the community co-operatives to council employees and big business. Gradually Council is taking more ownership of the project.

The project will be showcased during the World Summit, particularly the Ivory Park urban Eco-village which will eventually boast 30 houses built using hydraform bricks (a mixture of earth and cement – see UGF Mar/Apr 2001 and Nov/Dec 2001 issues) and recycled building materials. These houses will be correctly aligned and insulated to reduce heating, powered by photovoltaic cells, utilising composting toilets, recycling grey water and harvesting water off roofs into rain tanks. The project includes a nursery (which is already selling seedlings to the Gauteng department of agriculture), vegetable gardens, an energy demonstration centre run by the Department of Minerals and Energy and a community hall. (See article on first phase of Ivory Park Eco-village in UGF Jan/Feb 2002 issue.)

EcoCity projects are meant to serve as demonstration models of sustainable lifestyles. People are encouraged to visit the projects and learn new techniques and ideas.

EcoCity is working on various environmental problems, notably poverty, by promoting ‘green’ ways of making money. EcoCity has mobilised the unemployed people of Ivory Park (a township in Midrand and part of the City of Johannesburg) to form co-operatives to grow and buy organic food, to recycle, to repair bicycles, to build homes, to use and promote green energy solutions, to become eco-tourism guides and more. Some 300 jobs have been created so far.

EcoCity has formed a public-private partnership with the City of Johannesburg and in this way mobilised the Johannesburg Council to back and adopt green principles in urban design and renewal. In partnership with the Council, which has seconded many of its employees to EcoCity projects, EcoCity has helped produce a State of the Environment report, carry out studies on water demand management and car pooling and assist with the rehabilitation of river courses. “EcoCity is helping the Johannesburg Unicity address specific Agenda 21 problems,” says Sugrue.

EcoCity’s work is breaking new ground: one area is in ‘eco banking’ which gives poor people access to money in novel ways – for example by trading in ‘sweat equity’ and by encouraging loans for ‘green home improvements’.

Specific EcoCity interventions
Water: It has assisted the Johannesburg Council’s Water Demand Management Strategy in areas of the Johannesburg metropole, initiated river rehabilitation projects and, most importantly, is developing a demonstration urban eco-village that harvests rainwater off roofs, recycles all grey water and minimises water wastage. It has worked closely with the national Working for Water Project of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry investing R 1 million in rehabilitating the Kaalspruit River.

Environment, health and sanitation control: Human waste is composted and grey water is recycled for gardening. Organic waste is used for growing. Alternative sanitation (composting toilets) is promoted in the urban eco-village.

Human settlements: The demonstration eco-village (phase two is under construction) shows how people can live in a sustainable and humane way. Houses are made of alternative environmentally-friendly building materials, energy is conserved, water is recycled, human waste is composted, organic produce is grown in situ and people live in a cohesive village atmosphere.

Energy: Appropriate energy sources are used: solar power is the energy of choice, followed by biomass (in low smoke braziers). Low cost ceilings (Eskom/Temm initiative), other insulation and correct alignment of homes contribute to energy efficiency. Bicycles are promoted for transport.

Industry: Best industrial practice is promoted to industry
Planning and development integration: With the public-private partnership there is a huge drive to get the environmental principles of EcoCity onto the formal planning agenda.

Education and training: All participants receive extensive training in their core skills, finance and environmental awareness.

Legislation: EcoCity is active in lobbying for green laws and policies.

Public awareness: EcoCity has run numerous workshops, especially empowering the unemployed, women and youth and it has produced newsletters, brochures and educational posters.

Agenda 21 in the Durban Metropolitan Area
Durban’s Local Agenda 21 programme was initiated in 1994. The goal of the programme was to develop an Environmental Management System (EMS) for achieving environmentally sustainable development.

The first phase of Durban’s Agenda 21 programme was initiated in 1994 with the appointment of the city’s first environmental manager. In November 1994, Council (DMC) approved the commissioning of the first State of the Environment and Development Report (SOER) for the Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA) which was completed in June 1996 and provided a baseline for subsequent strategies. Issues prioritised included promotion of peace, improvement of water and sanitation, an integrated housing policy, improving land use planning and an integrated environmental management procedure.  

Phase 2: Policy formulation and planning (1997-1999)
Changes in legislation had increased the environmental management responsibilities of local government. However, local government was not yet equipped to deal with new responsibilities – there were only four environmental officers who were expected to deal with seven transitional councils. Institutional changes would need to be made to ensure that local government had the skills and resources necessary to plan and manage the urban environment effectively.

The DMC approved the development of the first environmental policy for the city in 1997. In line with the participatory nature of Durban’s Local Agenda 21 programme, the preparation of the Durban Metropolitan Environmental Policy Initiative (DMEPI) involved a broad range of stakeholders.

Next, environmental information was required to guide strategic planning and development. The Durban South Basin is the economic heartland of the DMA (contributing over 60% of the DMA’s gross geographic product. It is also an environmental ‘hotspot’ experiencing air pollution and waste disposal problems and the loss of important natural resources.

A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was carried out to assess the ecological, social and economic problems and opportunities in the area, and to propose sustainable development guidelines. The key findings of the SEA were that the South Basin should remain an industrial area, new investment was needed to address environmental and community issues, industrial growth would put pressure on the non-commercial land uses in the area and current air pollution levels were unacceptable.

A further key recommendation to emerge from the SEA was the need for improved disaster management in the Durban South Basin. To this end UNEP’s APELL (Awareness and Preparedness for Emergencies at the Local Level) programme was launched in Durban in October 1999, as a Phase3 Local Agenda 21 programme.

There was an urgent need for an open space plan to conserve the important natural resource base. Open space was mapped and quantified and found to represent 45 090ha, or 33% of the total DMA area. Approximately 52% of this open space cannot be developed due to unstable land, steep topography, open water surfaces, road and rail reserves or land zoned as parks and conservation areas.

Phase 3: Implementation of the ems prior to unicity establishment (1999-2000)
Phase 3 of Durban’s Local Agenda 21 programme was initiated in the two years that preceded the 5 December 2000 local government elections.

Cities Environmental Reports On The Internet (CEROI) Project
Environmental information collected in the first two phases of the Local Agenda 21 programme was made available to all stakeholders. The CEROI project was co-ordinated at an international level by UNEP/ GRID-Arendal (United Nation’s Environment Programme/Global Resources Information Database) in partnership with ICLEI’s (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) Cities 21 campaign, and was managed at national level by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT).

The aim of the project was to develop a simple and easily understood SOER template for the Internet. Durban thus disseminated information collected for the State of the Environment and Development Report and related Local Agenda Phase 2 projects (SEA, D’MOSS etc.). Twenty-three pilot cities around the world were involved in the pilot phase of this project including Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town which will assist in standardising SOE reporting.

Documentation of Phases 1-3 as an international case study
Funds from the European Union are being used to document and analyse the work undertaken during the first three Phases of the programme (1994-2000). This documentation is being undertaken at the request of the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

Phase 4: Foundations of environmental management in the unicity (2000-2001)
Phases 1-3 laid the foundations for three key strategic projects which would be initiated in order to guide and influence planning and management in the Unicity following the December 2000 elections. These are as follows:
•            Audit of environmental performance in local government structures
•            Preparation of unicity open space framework plan
•            Cities for climate protection project: The DEAT and USAID (US Agency for International Development) have entered into a Bilateral Grant Agreement to implement a South African programme tco address global climate change. One component of this programme is a ‘Unicity Climate Change Initiative’ which aims to engage the largest South Africa cities in actions which address urban service priorities and the global climate change agenda.

Cape Town unites to fight fires
After the great fire of January 2000, conservation officials, local communities, all levels of government and the private sector got together to launch a unique conservation and fire prevention programme – the Santam/Cape Argus Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop Campaign. The campaign also addresses many Agenda 21 concerns.

Tourists acknowledge the southern tip of Africa for its glorious scenery, while conservationists recognise it as an international hot- spot of biodiversity. Two years ago it was devastated when runaway fires tore through more than 8 000 ha damaging the mountainous National Park and adjoining properties. Shock led to action and an innovative public-private partnership was born – Santam/Cape Argus Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop Campaign.

In the Xhosa language, Ukuvuka means to wake up. Fire may be an essential part of the life of the Cape Floral kingdom, but this fire was unnaturally fierce due to widespread alien vegetation. Cape Town also needed to “wake up” to the poverty of many of its citizens. Thus Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop not only aimed to rehabilitate fire-damaged areas and reduce fire risk by controlling invading alien plants, but also to create employment, provide training and give poverty relief to its disadvantaged people. The campaign aimed to implement integrated fire management plans.

People who, at best, eked out a living in the past are now running their own businesses clearing invasive aliens or abseiling down mountains doing search and rescue; newly trained workers have contributed to clearing some 30% of the identified invasive alien vegetation along the urban edge. An informal settlement prone to sweeping fires now has an impressive fire-free record.

Who’s involved?
The public sector members of this wide-ranging partnership are the local authority the City of Cape Town, the South African government (through its Working for Water programme, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) and the South African National Parks (SANP)) and the provincial Western Cape government.

Private sponsorship primarily comes from insurance company Santam, the Cape Argus newspaper, WWF/Nedbank Green Trust and Total. Then there is the wider range of supporters such as the National Botanical Institute and various professional service providers like PriceWaterhouseCoopers (accounting services), and Jan S Marais (legal services).

“A lot of what Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop does is facilitation,” explains campaign co-ordinator Val Charlton. “We ensure that people from disparate organisations work together towards a common goal.” The strength of Ukuvuka, now two years into its allotted four-year campaign period, is to identify key projects which unite the partners and enable them to work at ground level with the communities.

Community benefits
Communities – and people – are the key. At Masiphumelele informal settlement near a prime tourist area, the Cape of Good Hope Reserve, there is a high level of unemployment. Most people live in shacks. Ntombekhaya Rwana was one such person, making money when she could by selling chickens at the side of the road. Now, thanks to training from the Ukuvuka campaign, she is the leader of a collective which clears alien vegetation on National Park land. She takes the responsibilities of running a business and employing people in her stride. Her colleague Phatiswa Banisi speaks enthusiastically about what she has learnt: “It’s the first time we learnt about how to run a business; how to give people jobs; about gardens and trees and why they are important; and how to use money for the business.”

Setting up emerging entrepreneur groups – ‘collectives’ – in deprived communities bordering the National Park was seen as an essential way of contributing to poverty relief and spreading skills. As Guy Preston, national leader of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s Working for Water Project and the key figure in setting up the Ukuvuka campaign, says: “Collectives are a way of getting people to work together and benefit collectively.” They are also a way of training people in managerial skills and enabling them to pass on these skills or employ others.

Collectives were formed by people who already knew each other, such as church groups, community organisations or savings clubs. Then ten groups of ten people each were given intensive practical training, on issues such as invading alien vegetation, ecology, fires, how to set up and plan businesses, how to manage a small business and how to quote for jobs.

As part of their training they tendered for work in the Cape Peninsula National Park, using a system of closed quotes. Within just over a year their tendering has managed to generate more than R2,3 million in income.

The lessons learnt from this project were applied in the Noordhoek Wetlands Rehabilitation Project. These wetlands ‘break’ the Peninsula Mountain Chain which runs the length of the Cape Peninsula National Park. They were in a sorry state, threatened by unsustainable development and losing water to the thirsty invading alien vegetation. Now SANP has finalised negotiations with public and private landowners to incorporate the wetlands into the park, and 600 previously unemployed people are restoring the wetlands – putting their ongoing training to good use.

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa: Western Cape (WESSA:WC) is the NGO responsible for the administration, financial management and training of the Noordhoek Wetlands Rehabilitation Project. The complex partnerships focusing on one project can be seen in the list of those involved: funded by the DEAT’s Poverty Relief Unit and managed in co-operation with Ukuvuka, the City of Cape Town, the South African Navy, the Noordhoek Valley Training Centre Campus of the South Peninsula College, Living Hope Centre, SANP and the communities of Ocean View (formed during the years of apartheid when ‘non-white’ people were moved from their homes), Masiphumelele and Red Hill (both informal settlements).

It was very much ‘hands-on’ learning, from life skills, such as how to open and operate an electronic banking account, to practical skills such as the safe use and servicing of chainsaws and aspects of environmental education such as waste management, pollution prevention, wetland ecology and horticultural skills.

High fliers
Ukuvuka’s high-altitude alien clearing teams, in being trained to clear invading alien vegetation from impossibly inaccessible places, are also training to be rapid response fire-fighting teams and wilderness search and rescue volunteers. A training exercise turned into real-life drama recently when trainees rescued two tourists from Table Mountain in the early hours of the morning.

The two abseiling teams were chosen from Hout Bay’s fishing village and Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay’s informal settlement. Like the other projects, there was a cross-sectoral partnership involved, largely funded by the government’s Working for Water project. From the 250 initial applicants, two collectives of ten people each were chosen, plus their elected team leaders. They have come a long way. The first time Pumla abseiled she froze half way, wailing that she wanted to go home and never come back. Her team-mates clapped encouragement, willing her to go on – now she’s the team leader.

As the teams train, they constantly look for commercial possibilities – would this route be a good one along which to take tourists? How long does it take to walk? The teams have taken school groups from disadvantaged areas up the mountain – breeding young conservationists and spreading their knowledge and enthusiasm. A commercial operator recently contracted the teams to take 11 Argentinian tourists up the mountain and introduce them to the thrill of abseiling.

Re-engineering Joe Slovo
As it was fire which was the catalyst for the formation of Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop, it seems fitting that the dramatic reduction of fire in the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa should be one of the campaign’s key projects – which could be duplicated nationally. In November 2000, more than two-thirds of its residents were left homeless as a fire swept through the closely-packed shacks. With the City of Cape Town, Ukuvuka began a campaign educating residents to be proactive in reacting to fires. Just over a month later, however, a fire broke out and was fanned by the typical gusting winds of the region. Within two hours more than 4000 people were without homes – luckily nobody was killed. Obviously a long-term solution was needed to stop these runaway fires.

The solution was to relocate the residents into blocks of houses, separated by tracks operating as fire breaks. Ukuvuka funded the installation of fire hydrants at strategic points on these tracks and the City of Cape Town electrified the area, removing the reliance on open flames as a source of heating and cooking. The result has been an over 90% reduction in fires.

Duke Gumede was one of the Council officials who worked almost seven days a week in the days following the fire, answering all the questions from the people then living in tents. The people, he said, were receptive to the changes because they were part of the decisions that were made. The reconfiguration of the community also involved swopping land with the school so that people living under electricity pylons could be moved to what had been the school grounds and the land under the pylons could be used as school playing fields.

One of the spin-offs is the involvement of the National Botanical Institute – the implementing partner for Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop’s greenbelt project. Weekly meetings of the community environment group have resulted in a community vegetable garden and a community greening project, including water wise gardening. The next phase will include playing fields and ‘grey water’ gardens around the standpipes where people do their washing.

The challenge now, Val Charlton of Ukuvuka believes, is to use the experience and information Ukuvuka has gathered about working with partnerships to change behaviour, locally and globally. “Information has been documented and we are building a knowledge management tool,” she said.

Said Ukuvuka: Operation Firestop campaign manager Sandra Fowkes: “During the remaining two-thirds of the campaign, it is time to work together with the wider community to ensure that the legacy left by the campaign will be a significant contribution to reinstating the ecological integrity of the mountain chain and uplifting the people – particularly from those impoverished communities of the area.”

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CIVIL SOCIETY

Barely civil society?
The South African civil society process leading up to the WSSD has been marred by politics. However, delegates appear to agree on the issues which are, after all, the crux of the Global Forum.

After months of bitter fighting, the South African civil society groupings have finally split into the Civil Society Forum, dominated by labour but including most major groups, and a new Civil Society Indaba dominated by rural people who felt that their interests were being marginalised in the original Indaba.

It seems the trouble began when the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco) was tasked with organising civil society representation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). “Sangoco was chosen as the overall facilitator of the WSSD civil society initiative because it was already a major representative of NGOs and CBOs. Sangoco then mandated the Rural Development Services Network (RDSN) to set up the WSSD civil society secretariat,” explains Eddie Cottle, director of RDSN.

However, not everyone felt that Sangoco and the RDSN were the best choice. Labour thought unions should have a majority vote in the ‘indaba’ (or multi-stakeholder process), arguing that they represented a major constituency.

Its strongest union, COSATU was demanding three times as many seats on the council as any other group. When other groups refused to be marginalised, COSATU led a walk-out. Then labour changed tactics and teamed up with Sangoco, the SA Council of Churches, COSATU and the SA National Civics Organisation (SANCO) to take control of the process. The labour-dominated Forum now calls the political shots.

In spite of all the power struggles, and a drying up of funding in response to the battles (the budget has been slashed from R400 to R200 million), the civil society secretariat has soldiered on to fulfil its mandate – organising the Civil Society Global Forum, which runs parallel to the Heads of State Summit. The secretariat was launched in April 2001 to act as a management resource to organise the Global Forum which takes place at the Nasrec exhibition centre from 19 August to 4September 2002. The separation of the Summit into the separate heads of state and civil society events is meant to ensure that civil society’s voice is not drowned out by governments and multi-national corporations.

The secretariat’s job is to co-ordinate political, environmental and economic content for discussion by civil society delegates during the Summit. It has also been responsible for two processes of participation: an African process which draws in Africa’s civil society, and an international process which works with international organisations. This division was made to ensure that Africa’s, and South Africa’s, issues remained high on the agenda. The secretariat is answerable to a political governance body – the multi-stakeholder forum, which includes Labour, Civics, Faith, the Disabled, Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Women, and Youth. The other body, the Civil Society Indaba will be holding its own events about a week before the Global Forum. It is more left wing in its approach, is opposed to Nepad (New Partnership for Africa’s Development), and has links with anti-globalisation groups.

These issues aside, South African civil society is generally united regarding the concerns which need to be raised during the WSSD. In its Bali Declaration, civil society cited the outcomes it hopes will emerge. Here are some:
*            Economic development must be integrated with social, environmental and health rights. Sustainable development requires equal participation by all marginalised groups.
*            The priority of production is to meet the needs of the people.
*            There should an unconditional cancellation of the debt of governments in the South and the payment of ecological debt.
*            Developed countries must meet the target of contributing 0,7% of their GDP to Official

Development Assistance
Access to basic services, including water, sanitation, energy, health services, housing and education are the foundations upon which health and well-being are built. Basic services are not to be ‘commodified’. We call for the prioritisation of social spending over spending on arms.

The core issues of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children (1989) must be respected.

The implementation of organic farming must be linked to social and economic development and the empowerment of women. There must be humane treatment of all farm animals.

National and local food and seed sovereignty need to be under the control of communities and government.

Indigenous methods of knowledge and agricultural production must be respected. We call for the implementation of the precautionary principle and a moratorium on the use of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). There should be no patenting of life forms.

There must be protection of biodiversity and measures to combat climate change and desertification with penalty provisions at both national and global level.

There should be a universal commitment to a four-fold increase in energy efficiency for all economies, national and transnational, relative to year 2000 baselines, by 2012. Nuclear power is not an option for future energy generation.

People’s global solidarity must oppose capitalist globalisation. The wealth/poverty gap must be closed. All international financial and economic institutions should be accountable and subjected to the UN process.

There must be a convention on corporate accountability to hold transnational companies accountable to people and not just their shareholders, especially in the light of recent corporate fraud exposés and information on the size of CEO salaries.

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CONSTRUCTION

Sustainable building initiatives
The Facilities Planning & Management Programme of the Building and Construction Technology Unit of South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) manages a number of initiatives that support sustainability in the design, development and ongoing operational maintenance of buildings.

Green Buildings for Africa
The Green Buildings for Africa (GBA) programme, begun in 1997, promotes responsible environmental management of facilities in the public and private sector. The programme encourages property owners to ensure efficient and sustainable use of non-renewable and renewable resources; to adopt environmentally conscious policies and decision-making procedures; and to ensure healthy and comfortable indoor working environments.

Neil Oliver, who is responsible for the GBA programme, says that it offers property owners the opportunity to share the CSIR’s expertise on environmental management in buildings. Reductions in energy and water consumption, more efficient waste management, and the control of air and noise pollution, are among the ISO 14001 related issues addressed by the programme. “Effective Environmental Management Systems in buildings carry significant cost benefits,” says Oliver, “contributing to reduced operating overheads, increased property values and higher returns on investment.”

Participants in the GBA’s Showcase Partner Programme commit their facilities to a continuous improvement cycle, with support from GBA. This begins with baseline audits on factors of key concern – typically, energy and water usage and waste output. The next steps usually deal with improvements in energy efficiency and energy management, followed by phased adjustments in the management of water, waste and other concerns, which may be differently prioritised in different buildings. The programme is structured to measure physical changes and demonstrate the cost benefits of upgrading or modifying buildings and/or building services to improve environmental management.

To date, pilot studies have been carried out at Eskom’s Megawatt Park in Johannesburg, Sanlam’s Sancardia Centre in Pretoria, CSIR Conference Centre in Pretoria, Old Mutual Centre in Pretoria and Mutual Park in Cape Town. (Some of these pilot studies have been reported previously in Urban Green File: Megawatt Park – Nov/Dec 1999 and CSIR Conference Centre – Mar/Apr 2000.) Most recently, the Anglo American Corporation has joined the GBA Showcase Partner Programme, in respect of its headquarters in central Johannesburg, as has Rand Water with its head office south of the city.

Jan Huygen, building manager at Rand Water’s head office site, reports that since the GBA programme was adopted about nine months ago, baseline audits on energy consumption and waste output have been completed. Issuing from these, a programme of recommended actions has been prepared for budget approval. While some smaller changes have already been implemented, Huygen says that proposed adjustments in the area of energy management would result in an annual operational cost saving of between 15% and 20% on current energy expenditure. Indications are that Rand Water is looking to extend the programme to its other sites. Energy cost savings would thus be maximised and dry waste could be pooled, to make the recycling of materials other than paper (which is already recycled) viable on the basis of greater volumes.

At 55 Marshall Street, the headquarters of the Anglo American Corporation, the GBA showcase programme was begun just a year ago. Baseline audits have been completed and the focus has already shifted to improving efficiencies in respect of energy and water consumption and waste management.

GBA is planning to implement a national grading scheme, which will list those property owners and the respective buildings that participate in the showcase programme in a ranking that indicates their ‘greening’ achievements.

Oliver points out that an important aspect of the GBA programme is that it builds knowledge and capacity internally in the participating organisations. GBA staff are resourced initially in a consulting capacity and thereafter can be called on for advice and information. Oliver emphasises that the decisions to participate in the programme and on the methods and areas in which it is implemented are taken internally. GBA supports the continuous improvement cycle through annual, technical workshops and dissemination of information to the showcase partners.

Design for sustainability
The Sustainable Buildings Group, which also operates within the Facilities Planning & Management Programme and works closely with GBA, has developed a Sustainable Buildings Assessment Tool (SBAT). This system can be used to assess the sustainability, in economic, social and environmental terms, of existing buildings or new buildings prior to or during the design process. Jeremy Gibberd, from the Sustainable Buildings Group, says that SBAT has been developed to offer a support tool that enables an explicit understanding of sustainability issues and provides for measurable factors to be targeted and integrated into the design process. It has been conceived for use in developing countries and thus includes aspects such as the impact of the building on the local economy, a consideration not normally included in other assessment systems. “Even if it is used simply as a reference framework,” says Gibberd, “SBAT stimulates consideration of sustainability factors in the design process.”

Ideally, collaboration among design professionals and building developers, owners and users, leads to sustainability being integrated beyond design into construction and operational management of buildings through their full lifecycles. SBAT has been developed in line with a structured approach that parallels the different stages of the traditional building process and allows for sustainability target setting and assessment to be integrated into the building life cycle. The approach is structured as follows.
•            Development of the design brief
•            Site analysis
•            Development and setting of an evaluation framework
•            Design
•            Testing and refining (to meet agreed sustainability performance targets)
•            Construction
•            Support for building users
•            Operational management
•            Demolition/reuse/recycling

The assessment tool is easy to use in that it provides for a range of inputs and results are graphically portrayed in a web-like matrix. The input of agreed sustainability performance targets for a building in respect of each of the 15 factors measured (5 in each of the economic, social and environmental sectors), produces a desired ‘imprint’ for the building. Design options can then be overlaid onto the target imprint and it is immediately clear where the building would be performing well or where design improvements are required. In this way, different options can be evaluated and compared quickly. In addition, buildings can be rated in terms of sustainability and benchmarks established.

SBAT has been used in a number of recent and current building projects around the country. It is used differently in each case. In some instances it provides for target setting before conceptual drawing begins, so that sustainability measures become part of the brief; this has been the case with a new hotel building planned on the Spier Estate in the Western Cape and with new buildings in Pretoria for USAID, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. The Sustainable Buildings Group was also consulted in the design of the new MTN call centre and a target setting workshop was held with the client and the design team to identify which factors within SBAT would be prioritised and at what level. In other projects SBAT is simply used to assess an existing design and the client can then decide whether the design should be altered to meet specific sustainability concerns. This was the approach adopted at the new Cape Town Convention Centre, currently under construction. Different clients have different priorities. SBAT presents a balanced view, encompassing economic, social and environmental factors.

Beyond providing the tools for assessment at the design stage, SBAT also provides a means of carrying sustainability through to operational policies and ensuring implementation in the construction process and ongoing building management. The Sustainable Buildings Group offers the additional services of compiling manuals for the building user and training for sustainable practices in building management.

Tensile 1 – the world’s largest portable structure
The tent-like structure known as Tensile 1 is to be erected at the Johannesburg World Summit’s Ubuntu Village on the grounds of the Wanderers Club. It will house the exhibition of global best practice in sustainable development, as well as other facilities, for the duration of the Summit.

Tensile 1 was designed by British engineer Rudi Enos for then-UK-based Gearhouse plc, to provide a portable venue that could host large-scale events. It was first used in the United Kingdom for the new millennium celebrations. The structure is now owned by Gearhouse SA, which has been contracted by the Johannesburg World Summit Company (JOWSCO) to erect the structure at the Ubuntu Village. Although Tensile 1 has been used locally in the smaller configurations that the modular design admits, it will be erected in its full-scale, ‘16 pole’ construction for the first time in South Africa at the Ubuntu Village.

Standing 150 m long and 75 m wide, with a floor area of 10 804 m2, Tensile 1 has a capacity to accommodate more than 22 000 people. The 16 structural masts are open-ribbed 0,5 m square steel sections and stand 25 m high. The masts are tapered to a pointed base and are hinged into steel base plates before being raised into their structural positions. The base plates are fixed to the ground and the masts are held in place by a system of steel stay cables and some 400 anchors, specified to suit the ground conditions of the site where the venue is being erected. Steel trusses, 30 m wide, are installed between end pairs of poles for added structural stability and to provide suspension rigging as may be required.

The multi-layered 900 gsm webbed PVC membrane is laid out around the structure and then lifted onto it using telescopic forklifts. From the tented peaks of the masts, the fabric membrane drops to eaves at a height of about 6 m and the sides of the structure can be closed or open, as required.

All the materials used in Tensile 1 meet international standards for safety and fire resistance. The structure is designed to withstand winds of more than 170 km/hr and a nominal snow load of 0,2 kN/m2 – with a bearing capacity of 20 tonnes per pair of masts. The PVC membrane itself weighs 4,5tonnes. The structure can carry an additional suspended load of 200tonnes, in sound, lighting and staging equipment, or similar.

At the Ubuntu Village site, where the ground slopes, a scaffolding floor is to be installed with timber floorboards, to create a level floor internally. The height of the fabric membrane is adjusted accordingly on the masts.

Mark Ransom from Gearhouse SA says that Tensile 1 will be constructed over a four to six-week period by a crew of about 40. The company is expecting to move on site before the end of June, to allow time for the separate installation of services, such as power, data and telecom cabling and water supply, to meet the requirements for the broadcast studios and the bar and café facilities to be accommodated.

At the time of writing, JOWSCO reported that the site was being prepared, with infrastructure upgrades and clearing of exotic vegetation under way. It said that an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) was being developed to ensure that all construction and upgrades were in line with legislation and best practice.

The Ubuntu Village will be the central transport interchange for participants in the World Summit moving between the different venues. It will also host an exhibition of global best practice in sustainable development, as well as the South African Pavilion, a conference centre, an arts and crafts market and a theatre. It will be open to the public and thus will provide a meeting ground for members of the public and Summit participants.

Best practice in housing
The Sustainable Homes Initiative (SHI) and four of its founding partner projects were recently identified by the national Department of Housing as best practice case studies for sustainable housing development in South Africa.

SHI is one of the programmes run by the IIEC’s (International Institute for Energy Conservation) Africa office based in Johannesburg (see UGF Nov/Dec 2000).

The initiative was established in 1998 with the objective of increasing awareness – among policy makers, professionals, building contractors, potential home builders and home owners – of the benefits of energy-efficient housing, with particular regard to South Africa’s huge need for housing for low-income communities. SHI took the approach of engaging with a number of founding partner projects, which were already operating in the sphere of energy-efficient housing in different parts of the country, to create a network that would provide for the sharing of ideas and experience and a wider representation of different aspects of energy-efficient design and their benefits.

Christelle Beyers at SHI points out that energy-efficient design is not the end-goal but rather a design approach with very real benefits to the households in terms of cost savings on energy consumption, comfort, and safety and health – arising from reduced burning of wood or fossil fuels in the home, as well as local and global environmental benefits.

SHI will be registered on the Department of Housing’s Best Practices database, which is linked to its website at: www.housing.gov.za, in the category relating to Energy and Environmental Education and Advocacy. The four founding partner projects also to be registered as best practice case studies are:
*            Nova Institute’s eMbalenhle project in Secunda, Mpumalanga, in the category of Air Quality Improvement;
*            Kutlwanong ECOTM Housing in Kimberley, Northern Cape, as well as SHI’s Soweto ECOTM House in Soweto, Gauteng (see UGF Nov/Dec 2000), and the All Africa Games Village in Alexandra, Gauteng (see UGF Jul/Aug 1999), in the category of Energy;
*            Tlholego, near Rustenburg, North West Province, in the category for Environmentally Sensitive Development; and
*            Eco City Trust’s Eco-village in Ivory Park, Midrand, Gauteng (see UGF Jan/Feb 2002) also in the category for Environmentally Sensitive Development.

Although the focuses and the approaches differ in each of these projects, all are concerned with energy-efficiency and environmental sustainability in housing developments – encompassing aspects such as passive solar design, improved indoor air quality, urban greening, integrated local development and sustainable urban agriculture. Another shared concern is community participation – at all levels of development – so that an understanding of the benefits of energy-efficient housing is spread within the local communities. In turn the communities are empowered to influence the design and construction of their homes, and become aware of alternative technologies such as solar panels for water heating, solar cookers and similar.

NOVA Institute at eMbalenhle
The Nova Institute’s programme at eMbalenhle, a township near Secunda in Mpumalanga, began in 1997 when Sasol involved the institute to facilitate its discussions with the community about industrial pollution and the action Sasol was taking to counteract this problem. The community raised their own concerns, indicating that domestic pollution – from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels in the home – was more of a problem for them. This motivated Nova’s needs-driven investigation into finding a practical solution.

Dr Attie van Niekerk, director of the Nova Institute, says that numerous alternatives had been explored, historically – since the ‘60s when low-smoke coal was first considered as an option – and none had provided a solution that actually works for the community. He emphasises the importance of understanding the social patterns in the community, and of identifying the real needs, before an appropriate and sustainable technical solution can be found – one that will be used and will function efficiently over the long term. This was the approach adopted at eMbalenhle.

The solution itself is very simple, but the process of getting there is critical. The basa magogo is a low-smoke stove which, using traditional formal stoves or cooking containers, involves the simple technique of lighting the fuel from the top instead of from the bottom. This makes for significantly lower smoke output and more efficient burning of the coal, with improvements of 25% and higher. “It’s a process of taking the design to the people, rather than trying to ‘educate’ or convert the people to a solution that takes no account of established social patterns and preferences,” says van Niekerk. The success of Nova’s approach at eMbalenhle has led to it being extended to other areas and the basa magogo, or a similar solution, is to be introduced to communities around Sasolburg during this winter. Van Niekerk reports that the Department of Minerals and Energy is also considering the technology and the Nova approach for other areas where high levels of domestic pollution are problematic.

Kutlwanong Civic Integrated Housing Trust
KCIHT is a community-based organisation that began its work with the construction of 216 energy-efficient homes in Kutlwanong, a residential area in Galashewe township near Kimberley. The houses were designed through extensive consultation with the local community and US-based engineering firm PEER-Africa, which is affiliated to the IIEC.

Passive solar design principles are incorporated, in the orientation of the houses, provision of adequate roof overhangs for summer shading, the materials used, the inclusion of ceilings and other such factors. Monitoring of the Kutlwanong houses has indicated energy savings of up to 60% and indoor temperatures on winter nights of around 21ºC, without additional heating being used. This is particularly significant as a fuel-cost-saving measure in this low-income community in a region of the country that experiences very cold winters.

KCIHT also runs a range of community education programmes and manages an ongoing programme to fit ceilings into new and existing houses that were built without them, in Kutlwanong and vicinity. Thami Eland, ceo of the Trust, says that KCIHT is also looking at housing for the disabled. “They are the forgotten ones,” he says. “We are designing and building houses that suit the abilities of their owners.” Eland emphasises that KCIHT is known “for our affection for the communities in which we work. From our own observations and our own surveys, we find out what each community needs and we work out solutions with the people.”

KCIHT was requested by the Blouberg Municipality in Cape Town to undertake the construction of 2 000 homes in Witsand, a residential area of Atlantis on the west coast north of the city. The houses are based on the ECO-house model and are being designed and constructed in collaboration with the local community, with 400 houses to be completed in the first phase. KCIHT provides on-site construction training for the local people and this will be continued throughout the two-year project.

Vincent Diraditsile, one of KCIHT’s community advisers, has been temporarily seconded to SHI to assist with community education and participation programmes in the roll out of housing development projects in the Tshwane metropolitan area, where SHI was invited by the Tshwane City Council to assist with design input from its Green Professionals Scheme.

Tlholego near Rustenburg
Paul Cohen of the Tlholego development programme near Rustenburg says that, to date, the project has focused on the use of different building technologies, employing local materials and resources that can provide for good quality, sustainable housing. Tlholego has explored construction with compressed earth bricks and using the Australian mud brick construction system, which is accredited in terms of Australian building codes for formal buildings. The project is also looking at timber pole structures with mud brick walls, and exploring the evolution of indigenous architectural forms into construction using contemporary, environmentally appropriate materials. Cohen says that Tlholego has over the past decade functioned primarily as a training centre for the local community, providing training in alternative building systems, permaculture and the eco-village concept – where environmental, social and economic concerns are taken into account in the design of a village settlement and an optimum, productive and sustainable balance is sought between individual ownership and shared, common resources. Cohen suggests that sustainability depends on this balance and equally on incorporating long-term planning and aspirations consistently into everyday, short-term activities.

Construction work is progressing in the first phase of the planned GreenHouse Environmental Centre in Joubert Park, Johannesburg (see UGF July/August 2001).   Vanessa Black from the GreenHouse Project and James Jacobs from CBS Architects commented on the project.

The first phase in this development involved clearing the eastern section of the site and the conversion and upgrading of the former potting shed to house offices and a resource facility for the GreenHouse Project.

A number of buildings have been demolished and almost all the materials have been salvaged and stored on site for reuse where appropriate. All the demolition work, the removal of asphalt and concrete surfacing and excavation around the newly converted building was done manually – a labour intensive process. Building rubble and excavated earth are also being stored on site for future use; the rubble will be built into the planned willow wall, which will serve to recycle grey water, and the earth will be used where fill is needed.

Guiding principles
Jacobs explains that the green principles of: reduce, reuse, recycle, defined the guiding framework for the re-design and reconstruction of the potting shed. In the conversion of this small building to offices, consideration has been given to a range of environmental concerns such as: passive climate control, energy-saving measures, the reuse of materials, water management, sanitation and waste management.

The principles adopted to guide design in other buildings as they evolve within the masterplan for the Environmental Centre may be different, “...as each building will have to be environmentally self-regulating,” says Jacobs. The means of achieving this in high-tech construction, for example, would involve some different technologies, although there will also be some systems shared throughout the centre. He adds that the construction process of the first phase is being recorded and will be on display, so that the applications of the reduce, reuse and recycle principles can be understood by visiting groups.

In application
The former potting shed is just 200 m2 in area, a narrow building with a long north-south axis. The main structural changes involved lifting a central section of the roof to create a clerestory section that improves ventilation, and the construction of additional service spaces which have been extended westward into the former sunken seedling beds. The entrance to the building has been moved from the south to the north façade, facilitating access to the offices from the site gateway on Wolmarans Street.

One of the main challenges was to integrate the converted building more coherently within the site. The change in the positioning of the entrance and the approach was key to reconfiguring the outdoor spaces around the building and creating a sense of place amidst the current surrounding disorder. Steps have been built and a new ramp – surfaced with a soil and cement mix – has been carved into the site to provide access to the office building, which is below the Wolmarans Street level. From this north approach, to the small courtyard enclosed by a low curved stone wall at the southern end of the building, and another courtyard to the east, also framed by a newly built stone wall, the outdoor spaces hold the building and mould it into the site. Each is simply structured with built-in permaculture planting bays, water channels and seating areas. New water tanks have been constructed at the north and south corners of the building, to capture rainwater runoff from the roof, which will be used for the planted areas.

Green technologies
The building incorporates a number of environment-friendly technologies: including enviro-loos, solar water heating panels, a biolytic filter for grey water recycling, built-in containers to hold separated dry waste for recycling, sod planting to the flat roof over the west extension and the construction of one ‘demonstration wall’ using the straw-bale and cob plaster technique. The implementation of such systems has entailed a degree of experimentation. This was allowed for by the City Council in the use agreement on the property.

Reuse of materials
Concrete tiles, from one of the buildings demolished on site, have been reused to replace the previous asbestos-cement sheeting that was removed by the original supplier for safe disposal. A recycled cellulose fibre material will be used to insulate the roof. Some of the salvaged steel frames have been cut and re-welded to carry new partitions in the office space and old, hollow steel, fence posts are being cut and adapted to provide internal and external light fittings. Second-hand building materials from other sources have also been used: the timber ceiling panels are old floor boards; the ‘new’ steel window and door frames were bought from a second-hand building materials store; and the clay pavers, which are laid side down in a herringbone pattern to create a deep, heat-storing floor finish, were salvaged from another building site.

In lower traffic areas, a dung floor finish was attempted but the application failed. “This just makes the point that you can’t simply transfer a rural technique, that has been practised and perfected over time, to an urban context where it is entirely foreign,” says Jacobs. “We are now looking at making cob blocks on site for the office floors, and exploring the possibilities of adapting the dung floors to suit site conditions.”

There are other particularly challenging aspects. “The sod roof goes against everything we have learnt about taking water away from a building as quickly as possible. We have to consider the options and, with reference to existing expertise and careful design and engineering, make it work.”

The process
Jacobs says that this has been a learning process for all concerned. The architects have been more than usually involved in management on site. Compromises have been made and the building cannot be claimed as a perfect example of green architecture, but it does demonstrate the application of unconventional and environmentally concerned technologies in an urban environment. It challenges conventional approaches to construction and the widespread, wasteful use of materials.

Changing the way we do business
Reaching far beyond the environment, the concept of sustainable development is set to influence the way we do business, how we build and maintain infrastructure, and how we live. This has been realised by a number of business organisations, including the Geneva-based International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), which established a Sustainable Development Task Force in the late 1980s. Head of the task force, Jeremy Boswell, answers some questions.

What is the significance of having this task force headed by a South African?
With the World Summit on Sustainable Development coming to Johannesburg, there is no doubt that the spotlight will fall on the developing world and it is expected that the issues discussed will differ quite dramatically from those debated in Rio ten years ago. First World and Third World countries face completely different challenges when it comes to sustainable development.

At FIDIC, the input of members from developing countries has redirected the organisation’s focus so that not only the physical environment is considered but also the social environment. Every engineer, whether he/she specialises in consulting, construction or management, addresses poverty at some point or the other. South African engineers are exposed to both First World and Third World circumstances and we know how to interface state-of-the-art solutions with problems of the developing world.

Why is FIDIC playing such an active part in promoting sustainable development?
It has long been recognised that the consulting engineering industry plays an important role in moulding the thinking of clients and the public into a proper appreciation of the environmental consequences of the sector. This awareness has been reinforced by the fact that many firms provide services in areas such as water supply, sewage and waste treatment that have an important environmental component from the engineering and technical perspectives.

Consulting engineers are, therefore, able to assist legislators, politicians, the public and officials in interpreting the implications of policies and proposed legislation that affect the built and natural environments. Without this practical definition and implementation, public debate would focus on ideology and problems of definition.

Because their skills cover a range of technical areas and scientific disciplines, consulting engineers also help in providing a fertile breeding ground for the development of appropriate, new and cleaner technology, which places policy development on a more sustainable footing.

Increasingly, engineers are also playing the role of mediator between the community and the developer, finding out exactly what it is that the community needs and wants out of development.

What are the main sustainability objectives of the consulting engineering industry as identified by the task force?
A significant stride towards sustainable development can be accomplished by addressing poverty. The consulting engineering industry will be called on to play a larger role in planning, designing and executing appropriate management systems and infrastructure development.

Secondly, the provision of infrastructure, especially in water supply, sanitation, roads and housing, is often the preserve of the consulting engineering industry. The sector aims to make the international community aware that many developing countries are located in arid or semi-arid regions, where key issues include water supply on demand, water quantity and quality protection, the impact of development on the water sector and aspects concerning risk, vulnerability and sustainability. War, political turmoil, poverty and competition for scarce resources have resulted in housing becoming a significant issue in these countries.

Thirdly, consulting engineers can help focus public debate on the real issues of production and consumption, to explore opportunities instead of ideological conflict. We believe that consumption patterns must focus more directly on the quality of life rather than on the standard of living as reflected in purely economic terms.

What are you hoping to get out of the World Summit?
Certainly we have not sold the message to everybody and implementing guidelines for sustainability should be the norm rather than the exception. We suspect that the World Summit will, perhaps for the first time, make people aware of the consequences of their actions, and we need to build on that. We also need to guide people to achieve sustainability in their actions. FIDIC, for example, has come up with a set of sustainable development guidelines for consulting engineers.

If anything, it is hoped that the Summit will foster increased co-operation and unity. War is one of the greatest contributors to poverty and environmental degradation, and co-operation and understanding will go a long way to achieving sustainable development.

Building alliance launches at Summit
The World Summit on Sustainable Development has sparked the birth of a unique new body - the Global Alliance for Building Sustainability (GABS) - that will commence its mission to accelerate sustainable development for land, property, construction and development at an official parallel event of the Johannesburg World Summit.

Buildings are one of the world’s largest consumers of natural resources and they are generators of pollution and waste. In the developed world, the built environment is responsible for the majority of emissions contributing to global warming. How buildings are developed, sustainably or otherwise, is therefore of great importance to the future of mankind.

The inaugural meeting of GABS at the Indaba Hotel in Johannesburg on 29 and 30 August 2002 will see the future working practices of over a million built-environment related practitioners in government, business, communities and the environment debated by their organisations’ leaders. The challenge for these Heads of Delegation is to close the gap between policy and practice by developing and implementing cross-party, cross-sector and cross-practice partnerships. By developing this inter-disciplinary approach, GABS can encourage processes and practices across the globe that will make sustainable development an achievable reality for these practitioners in their lifetime.

Comments Alan Gilham, Sustainability Adviser to the RICS Foundation, the UK-based research charity that is driving GABS: “Connecting policy makers and practitioners is critical to building sustainability. If practitioners can understand policy objectives better and particularly how they relate to their own work then they can help policy makers achieve policy objectives more cost effectively.”

The wide geographical, sectoral and functional spread of its member organisations means that GABS has considerable potential for capacity building, technology transfer, information support and institutional strengthening. Another key aim is to create a global learning network by facilitating wider access to existing information, research, guidance, tools and best practice. Regular seminars, a dedicated website, newsletters and reviews are among the potential communications vehicles on the table.

GABS is increasingly seen as a powerful coalition gaining ever broader and more potent recognition. Now formally recognised as a ‘Type 2’ partnership initiative – a formal outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development – the most recent body to express interest in joining is UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme.

Dr Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director UNEP and UN Under Secretary General, wrote in a letter to David Fitzpatrick, Executive Director RICS Foundation, “The local dimension of environmental issues is increasingly important, not only because of the direct effect to human health at the local level, but also because of the contribution of local activities to environmental issues at the national, regional and global levels. UNEP is increasing its urban environment activities and developing a new urban environment strategy, which is a joint activity between UNEP’s urban environment unit in Nairobi and UNEP’s International Environmental Technology Centre based in Japan. UNEP is therefore very much interested in becoming a member of GABS.”

Dr Klaus Töpfer will formally announce GABS on the first day of UNEP’s inaugural meeting in Johannesburg, delivering a keynote speech to the attendant Heads of Delegation.

UNEP’s membership of GABS will bolster an increasingly high profile line up of member organisations which includes leading governmental environment departments, local authorities, labour organisations, business and industry institutions and an array of NGOs (non-governmental organisations), from around the world.

To demonstrate practitioners’ achievements to date, and how sustainable development can deliver prosperity with responsibility, some of these organisations will present best practice case studies from their sector at the meeting. Included in the handful of projects selected is one from the Peabody Trust in the UK. Called BedZED, this is a mixed housing development in south London, designed to offer its occupants the opportunity to live and work with a completely carbon neutral lifestyle, in a way that is attractive, cost effective and appropriate to urban living.

Comments Dickon Robinson of the Peabody Trust, “One of the key reasons for embarking on the BedZED project was to demonstrate to a sceptical industry how sustainability is possible, is cost effective and can really make a difference to society and its future. It is only through the track record of successfully delivering projects such as BedZED and proving there is a market demand for this kind of product that mainstream developers and construction participants will feel they can seriously take steps towards a more sustainable world.”

This and other inspirational case studies will be collated in a Compendium of Best Practice Case Studies in Sustainable Development as a fQormal output of GABS.

Other deliverables from the inaugural meeting will be a work programme, a Global Alliance Charter – signifying Member’s allegiance and commitment to GABS’ mission and goals – and a Guidance and Tool Kit for Sustainable Development (for completion May 2003).

The Tool Kit will provide guidance on the key issues, actions and ways of measuring achievement, covering four themes relevant to policy makers and practitioners:
•            Policy, regulation and fiscal measures
•            Governance and accountability
•            Practical measures, core values and professional practice
•            Research, innovation, education and training

David Fitzpatrick, RICS Foundation Executive Director, summarises as follows “GABS is unique. Its mix of practitioners, professional bodies and policy makers ensures it will bring real change to the sectors of land, property, construction and development. It is also a platform on which existing best practice can be shared with a wider stakeholder group, offering rapid dissemination of tried and tested tools and guidance. At yet another level, it is a place where performance benchmarks can be developed and tested across international and sectoral boundaries, something the RICS Foundation’s new report ‘Red Man, Green Man’ into sustainability indicators finds is a crying need.”

Concludes Gilham, “GABS will encourage active participation from wide ranging groups of policy makers and practitioners, many of whom are currently unfamiliar with the principles or practices of sustainable development. It will result in better use of current skills and knowledge and encourage continuous improvement into the future. Together, GABS will change the way the world develops.”

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MINING

Sustainability in the mining sector
In South Africa, the mining industry carries an environmental legacy that dates back more than a century. The industry is today confronting changed rules and social expectations regarding its environmental management practices as well as its contributions to economic and social development.

In 2000, the country’s mining industry contributed R66,8 billion (7,5%) to South Africa’s GDP. Income from minerals exports in the same period was R88,5 billion. The mining sector employed 410 000 people. A similar profile is seen in the economies of most Southern African countries where millions of people depend on mining and its associated industries for their livelihoods. The sector has recognised the critical role it can play in acting as a catalyst in the region’s transition towards sustainable development.

MMSD – a global initiative
The final report of the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project has recently been published under the title Breaking New Ground (see www.iied.org/mmsd/finalreport/.) An initial report on MMSD in Southern Africa was carried in Urban Green File November/December 2001.

The global MMSD project arose out of a recognition that, in spite of its meeting market demands for mineral commodities and products which are essential to contemporary societies and economies, the mining industry falls far short of society’s expectations – in respect of concerns such as job creation, aiding economic development, striving for energy and resource efficiencies, and rehabilitating the natural environments that it has damaged. Nine of the world’s largest mining companies initiated a global examination of the role of the minerals sector in contributing to sustainable development.

Through the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, they contracted the International Institute for Environment and Development to undertake a two-year, independent process of research and consultation – the MMSD project. As the project rolled out to encompass five key mining regions – Australia, North America, South America, Southern Africa and Western Europe – it drew support from more than 40 mining houses and international organisations. Regional project teams and a central work group set out to assess the mining and minerals sector in terms of the transition to sustainable development; to identify what is being done and what further can be done; and to build platforms of analysis and engagement for ongoing communication and networking among all stakeholders in the sector.  

MMSD – Southern Africa
The research partners in the MMSD Southern Africa process are the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Stellenbosch.

The regional report reveals that the mining sector in the 12 mainland SADC states directly employed 2,3% of the region’s total workforce – estimated at 69 million – in 1999. Employment in the sector increased to 2 million in 2000, excluding informal miners.

These figures confirm the central role that mining plays as a source of employment in the region and that it will remain significant in the region’s development.

The specific concerns noted in the Southern African report revolve around: small-scale mining, HIV/Aids and water resources. These issues are highlighted against a background that looks at the interaction of social, economic and natural systems, and mining’s impacts on these systems, as a framework for sustainable development in the sector. The final report, which proposes 42 specific recommendations, also cites a number of overarching concerns that were prioritised by stakeholders. These cross-cutting issues are summarised as: poverty alleviation; job creation; capacity building and skills training; governance; and gender equity.

Stakeholders also expressed the concern that the research and recommendations would end up, like so many other studies, gathering dust, and called for structures to be put in place to enable the recommendations to be implemented regionally.

The regional recommendations will feed into policy positions and papers to be tabled at the WSSD in Johannesburg and will be developed within the framework of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) initiated by President Thabo Mbeki and other African leaders.

Transforming the South African mining industry
At the time of writing, the second draft of South Africa’s Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Bill is being debated by the parliamentary minerals and energy portfolio committee, amidst considerable controversy despite continuing discussion between government, industry, labour and other stakeholders. Minister of Minerals and Energy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has described the current inequitable ownership of South Africa’s mineral rights as “not sustainable in a democratic SA”. In her budget vote speech she pointed out that one company holds 63% of SA’s platinum reserves; 83% of the country’s manganese reserves are held by just two companies; just two companies hold 51% of SA’s gold reserves; and just one company controls 95% of SA’s diamond production.

The new bill aims to transform SA’s mining industry and to open access to South Africa’s mineral wealth to those previously discriminated against. It will transfer mineral rights from private ownership to the state and those seeking to mine or to prospect for minerals will be required to apply to the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) for permits to do so.

The granting of permits will require that the associated environmental impact assessment and management plans have been approved by the Minister (in line with the existing Minerals Act). This ensures that the mining industry complies with national environmental policy and places responsibility with the respective mining company for the reparation of any environmental damage, pollution or ecological degradation inside or outside the boundary of its prospecting or mining area. Mining companies (and those applying for mineral rights) have to hold funds for the management and rehabilitation of the mining environment from the outset of operations until the end of the life of the mine, at which stage an exoneration certificate is required from the DME before closure is permitted.

The new bill goes beyond concerns with equity of ownership and environmental management, also requiring mining companies to integrate social and economic factors into the planning and implementation of their operations. Any party applying for mineral rights will have to include a social plan as part of the application. At this stage there are no details of what such a social plan should entail and industry has called on the Department to clarify its expectations in this regard. Guidelines would assist and reduce the added risk that this requirement imposes on applications.

Industry argues that the requirements cited in the draft bill make the security of tenure that mining companies seek, and which is a prerequisite for investment, remote. Thus financial commitments from local and international investors will become harder to source and more costly. It is suggested that this, along with the burdens of social and economic development plans, will present a greater barrier to the smaller, new entry, entrepreneurial mining companies than to the long-established mining houses.

The debate will continue but the Department aims to see the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Bill enacted by year-end.

Other environmental initiatives
A number of technological and procedural advances have been made in the South African mining sector to manage critical safety and environmental hazards. Guidelines have been formulated, for example, for cyanide management in the gold mining industry. Regulations have also been drafted, through a collaborative effort between industry, the South African Bureau of Standards and government, to govern the management and rehabilitation of mine tailings. Water pollution is another major concern in the industry and the focus of various research and development programmes.

Water treatment technologies
Mining of the Witwatersrand gold reef has, over time, led to the creation of four hydrologically separate underground water compartments or basins known as the East Rand, Central, Western and Far Western Basins. These are not large underground dams but are hydro-geologically defined areas, which are modelled as separate water bodies. Their impacts on adjacent bodies of water are often unclear and contentious. All the active gold mines in the major mining basins are, to a greater or lesser extent, pumping out water in their operations. Most of these mines discharge highly saline underground mine water, which poses a significant risk to the already salinated Vaal River system – South Africa’s most important water resource.

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) is actively seeking ways to reduce this risk and to encourage mining companies to set up desalination plants to treat underground wastewater. The Department reports that at present most mines resist implementing desalination technologies because of the costs. The treatment of underground mine water is generally restricted to dealing with pH correction, suspended solids and heavy metal removal, although some gold mines have formed a joint venture to investigate setting up water treatment plants to process underground mine water to potable standards.

A study into the long-term sustainable management of mine water in the East Rand Basin is currently being conducted. This process is intended to give the lead in dealing with broader mining pollution issues in relation to the Vaal River system.

In line with the polluter pays principle, DWAF is developing a pricing strategy to implement a range of tariffs for water use and to incorporate a fee system for waste discharges, to establish a disincentive for water pollution. At the same time, a set of best practice guidelines is being prepared for water quality management in the mining industry.

The Water Research Commission has for many years studied mining related water issues. Current research is focusing on improving assessments of the impact of mining on water quality, improving predictions about mining’s future impact, and the means of minimising pollution and mitigating or controlling its effect through use of suitable treatment methods. The prediction of long-term water quaslity and its management in underground collieries is a key concern, as is pollution risk assessment in the gold mining industry and procedures for closure of deep gold mines.

One of the water treatment technologies developed by the CSIR and patented to Thuthuka Project Managers addresses the problem of acid effluent – providing for its processing so that it can either be recycled and reused in mining plant or restored to a standard that makes it suitable for return to the environment.

The technology is described as simple and the robust design of the water treatment plant promotes consistent, effective operation. A limestone precipitate, which is obtained relatively inexpensively as a by-product of the papermaking process, is used as a neutralising agent in this treatment process.

Collieries in Mpumalanga have a particular problem with acid water which, due to the pyrites in the coal, is produced when residual coal and coal waste from abandoned seams are exposed to air and water. Thuthuka Project Managers has recently completed its second commercial installation of the patented technology at a coal mine near Witbank. Another installation has been completed at a heavy minerals recovery plant near Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal; a third plant is under construction in Botswana and a fourth is planned with a metals refinery on the East Rand.

Gauteng Mining Pollution Forum
In Gauteng, the MEC for Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Af—fairs, Mary Metcalfe, last year established the Gauteng Mining Pollution Forum. This body involves all key stakeholders in the sector and is charged with defining the way forward for the management, control and prevention of pollution from mining activities in Gauteng. Two task teams have been established within the Forum: one to gather information on the mines, the extent of mining pollution problems and the environmental management plans that are in place and are being implemented in the province; and the other to collate information on the various technologies, old and new, that are available or in use to address these problems. Once complete and accurate information has been collated, specific remedial actions will be considered and implemented.

Awards for Excellence in Mining Environmental Management
The DME established an awards programme for Excellence in Mining Environmental Management (EMEM) in 2000. This is aimed at motivating the mining industry to excel in environmental management and to strive for continuous improvement in carrying out its environmental responsibilities, and at giving public recognition to those mining companies that have excelled in this area. The awards programme also seeks to establish and evaluate the status and effectiveness of environmental management on mines and, by highlighting examples of excellence, to promote awareness of successful environmental management techniques and technologies. A longer-term objective of the EMEM Awards is to prepare best practice guidelines on mining environmental management in South Africa.

The Minister of Minerals & Energy is the custodian of the awards programme, which has been endorsed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), the Department of Agriculture, the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR), the International Association for Impact Assessment – South Africa (IAIAsa), the Water Institute of Southern Africa – Mine Water Division, and the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

The awards are presented annually, alternately at regional and national level. The initial programme was structured around four categories – underground mining; large opencast mining; small opencast mining; and offshore mining – and the first national gold, silver and bronze awards were presented in February this year.

Gold medals were won by Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) (large opencast mining), a company that has for some time been recognised for its exemplary commitment to environmental management, and Serina Kaolin (Pty) Ltd (small opencast mining). Silver first went to De Beers Premier Mine (underground mining); Silver second to Palabora Mining Company (large opencast) and New Vaal Colliery (large opencast); and Silver merits to PPC De Hoek (large opencast) and Soekor E&P (offshore). Bronze merits were awarded to Iscor: Glen Douglas Dolomite (large opencast) and Bafokeng Rasimone (underground); and a special mention went to Bergpan Salt Works (small opencast).

Since its implementation in 2000, the EMEM Awards programme has been reviewed and the categories for entries have been revised to reflect mining operations more closely. The new categories introduced at the beginning of 2002 are: coal mining; gold, platinum, base metal mining; diamond mining; offshore mining; micro mining; industrial, iron ore, cement, aggregate, sand mining – with sub-categories for large operations and small operations; and decommissioned mines. Submissions for the regional EMEM Awards to be presented this year are due by the end of July.

The evaluation criteria for the awards remain focused on: the quality of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Environmental Management Programmes (EMPs); management of critical impacts and the implementation of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs); monitoring, performance assessment and continual improvement; and the implementation of additional initiatives towards excellence. An additional consideration, newly introduced, will look at the application of the principles of corporate governance to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Investing in empowerment
Anglo American plc is one of the world’s largest mining and natural resource groups: with subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates in gold, platinum group metals and diamonds, as well as coal, base and ferrous metals, industrial minerals and forest products. It has interests in Africa, Europe, South and North America and Australia – and in its country of origin, South Africa, this wealthy multi-national has spent significant amounts on both empowerment and uplifting poor communities.

The joy when three communities in Mpumalanga got their land back was palpable, says Anglo’s subsidiary, Mondi ceo Andrew Thompson. After a long process of consultation with communities and government, Mondi formally handed over ownership of land to three communities in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga – Thokozane, Maphepheni and Rustplaats/Malyinini.

This is one of many cases in which Anglo American has made a contribution to communities from which it has drawn its workforce. In this instance, the company was supporting rural land reform and promoting socio-economic development. “Ownership of the land will bring legal and emotional security to these communities, enabling them to develop infrastructure,” Thompson explains. “Opportunities exist for vegetable growing, ‘spaza’ shops, bee-keeping for honey, manufacture of timber products, manufacture of charcoal and firewood collection,” adds Kevin Cazalet, general manager of Mondi Forests.

Recently, SAFCOL’s KwaZulu-Natal forestry assets were bought by the SiyaQhubeka Consortium in which Mondi is a significant partner. A noteworthy aspect of the R100 million transaction is SiyaQhubeka’s pledge to include 9 000 ha of the land in South Africa’s World Heritage Site, the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, and to move the boundary fence of the park to include a large portion of its commercial plantations.

This recent acquisition brings Anglo American’s empowerment transactions to over R8,1 billion. Anglo’s procurement from black owned business and black business development amounts to over R3,1billion, resulting in an overall amount of more than R11 billion.

Last year Anglo Platinum and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), leader of an Economic Empowerment Consortium, concluded an agreement in terms whereof a 50:50 Joint Venture will be established between Anglo Platinum and ARM Mining Consortium to undertake the mining at Maandagshoek. Anglo Platinum participated in the signing of Heads of Agreement with the Royal Bafokeng in terms of which both parties will participate equally in the Bafokeng-Rasimone Platinum Mine and Styldrift project.

Anglo’s Small Business projects
Some highlights were (1999-2001):
In 1999, Tongaat-Hulett Group Ltd spent R309 million on farm projects for small and medium scale farmers and thus received 1,2 million tonnes of cane from 19 000 small growers, generating R138 million in revenue. In 2000, the sugar division in partnership with KwaZulu Finance and Investment Corporation, undertook a R44,5 million project which led to the sale of some 4 000 ha of sugar cane land to 54black farmers.

In 1999, Mondi invested R81,9million in procurement and purchased in excess of 100 000 tonnes of timber from small growers in Zululand. During 2000, a charcoal manufacturing venture was established at the Piet Retief operation that not only afforded the local people the opportunity to make charcoal from Mondi’s waste timber but also indirectly created 93jobs.

During 1999, Anglo Coal placed R65,4 million into procurement including fuel, cleaning and garden services, belt splicing, railway maintenance and dragline bucket repairs. A total of 107 black empowerment ventures were supported in 2000 with a spending of R134 million.

Besides empowerment business deals, Anglo American has a Chairman’s Fund which helps disadvantaged communities with projects ranging from a R2,5 million investment in schools, to supplying a sewing machine to a deserving small entrepreneur. The fund has been recognised in the recently released CSI Handbook 2001 for its good work in corporate social investment (CSI). The highest ratings came from the NPO (non-profit organisation) sector, which sees the fund’s approach to development as relevant, practical and aimed at addressing development needs realistically.

In 2001, an amount of R56,1 million, including R22 million from Anglo Platinum was granted for specific projects under the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund banner. At least 60% of the fund’s total budget is in support of a wide range of education initiatives – up to the end of October 2001, the Chairman’s Fund had made grants amounting to R40,3 million. In 2000, 62% of the total funds committed was in support of education.

The Anglo American Chairman’s Fund was constituted in 1974, under the guidance of Harry Oppenheimer, who was then chairman of both Anglo American Corporation and De Beers. The fund aims to distinguish between those who see themselves as victims and those who see themselves as potential victors and support victors. Under these guiding principles, the fund has channelled more than R920 million over the past 10 years.

Investing in recycling

Anglo Coal has led research into the utilisation of wastewater from collieries for crop irrigation.

Mining often pollutes our already scarce water resources. Most South African coal and gold deposits contain iron pyrites which when exposed to oxygen, water and bacteria, are oxidised to form sulphuric acid and iron sulphate. Large quantities of acid mine drainage (AMD) then occur. Before such acidic water can be discharged into rivers, it is typically treated with hydrated lime to neutralise acidity. Most of the resulting calcium sulphate is precipitated, but the effluent water remains saline – gypsiferous.

It was thought that this effluent was both useless and polluting – until some enterprising scientists decided to try using it for irrigation purposes. In association with the Universities of Pretoria, Natal and Cape Town a series of irrigation trials was conducted at the Kleinkopje Colliery under the auspices of the Water Research Commission. The results are showing that many of the waste waters produced by coal mines could be used for crop or pasture production.

This is possible because the principal salt component (gypsum or calcium sulphate) becomes significantly immobilised in irrigated soils. A subsequent series of trails is now being established on a range of sites and in a variety of climatic conditions. Two Anglo Coal mines are participating in the study, namely Kleinkopje and New Vaal Collieries.

By using wastewater, recycled plant water and polluted water from underground mining compartments, New Vaal Colliery has achieved a reduction of some 85% in fresh water consumption in the coal washing plant, from 70l per run of mine (rom) tonne in 1998 to an average of 10l/rom tonne in 2001.

Anglo Coal’s Kleinkopje Colliery is looking at the economic and technical viability of desalinating polluted waters (acid and neutral with sulphate concentrations of about 2 500 mg/l) for South African coal estates (SACE), to produce treated effluent with sulphate concentrations reduced to about 200mg/l. A 3 000 mg/l demonstration water desalination plant will be built in 2002, costing US$1,7 million. Using biological processes, the plant will be the first step in evaluating suitable desalination technologies for the future. SACE may ultimately treat up to 20000ml/day of polluted water during mining operations.

Meanwhile, the use of gypsiferous mine water for irrigation of agricultural crops is a promising technology which could solve problems related to both the shortage of irrigation water and the disposal of effluent mine drainage.

The feasibility of using mine water for irrigation of agricultural crops was first evaluated by researchers in a three-year field screening trial carried out at Landau Colliery, Kromdraai Opencast Section. Researchers used fast growing species that use a lot of water and concluded that irrigation with lime-treated AMD should not present a soil salinity or crop production problem within a relatively short time period.

In the Kleinkopje study, the soil water-salt balance-crop growth model, SWB, and the CLIMGEN weather data generator were used to simulate 30years of irrigation with gypsiferous mine water for different irrigation management scenarios, followed by 20years of dry land summer cropping, to determine if the problem of salt disposal was merely being postponed.

Generated weather input data were for the town of Bethal, soil input data for a Plinthic Ferralsol (FAO-UNESCO) and crop input data for a rotation of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum cv SA Standard) and oats (Avena sativa L cv Overberg). The soil appeared to act as an effective salt sink, with large quantities of calcium sulphate (340 to 404 Mg/ha) being precipitated in 30years, and with negligible amounts of remobilisation thereafter.

Once irrigation ceased, very little leaching of salts occurred. Annual irrigation depended on rainfall but averaged out at about 1 100 mm per annum. About 40% of the salts added through irrigation could be immobilised in the soil profile. It was concluded that year round, high frequency irrigation should be an effective and economical means of utilising large quantities of gypsiferous water without causing irreparable damage to soil resources.

This begs the question of what happens to any gypsiferous runoff. According to the co-ordinator of the research, Bielie van Zyl, vice president of Environment and Rehabilitation for Anglo Coal, the runoff may end up in groundwater, but continuous monitoring has not indicated any problems with groundwater salt levels this far.

“This is because once the gypsum has precipitated it remains in a solid form and tends to stay in the soil,” he says. “It also poses little threat to plants since in an insoluble form it cannot be taken up by the roots.”

What about its effect on the soil itself? “In Spain there are natural soils that have a high gypsum content and in spite of that, they are extremely fertile,” Van Zyl says. “Gypsum has also been used by farmers around the world to ameliorate clay soils and make them more porous to water.”

Rural enterprise accesses urban markets
More than 300 000 mineworkers were retrenched from South African mines during the 1990s. The social and economic fallout of job losses at this scale is huge and impacts most severely on the rural communities that are home to the majority of mineworkers. The Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA), which is the job creation wing of the National Union of Mineworkers, is seeking ways and implementing strategies to support sustainable business development amongst the communities affected. MDA marketing manager Tessa Teixeira spoke about some of the enterprises that have evolved out of MDA’s programmes.

MDA was set up in 1987 after the national mineworkers’ strike saw 40 000 miners retrenched. Since then retrenchments in the industry have continued. MDA’s work, to support local economic development in rural communities and mining towns affected by these job losses, forms part of the social plan for the mining industry that was initiated in 1992 by the Department of Minerals & Energy, the mining unions and the major mining houses.

MDA has an established network of nine business development branches and two regional offices in rural areas across southern Africa. Through this network, the agency has assisted in delivering business counselling and skills training – across a range of about 30 different small enterprise or employment options – to open up local job opportunities and to enable business enterprise to take root. While MDA’s own business counsellors provide guidance to start-up entrepreneurs, about 3 000 people are trained each year in skills courses which are run by accredited organisations in the different fields. MDA has also developed a number of supply centres, which are run by independent entrepreneurs, to service businesses that are remote from the sources of goods that they need to continue their work – one of the major obstacles to rural economic development.

Bridging the Gap
MDA’s present focus is on a programme it calls Bridging the Gap, which is aimed at facilitating partnerships that can leap the divide between rural production and higher value urban and international markets. The agency has held a number of workshops with a broad band of stakeholders – from rural producers to product designers and developers, retailers and policy makers – in order to identify the concerns of buyers seeking supplies of rural products and the obstacles that the producers face in meeting the demands of the urban market. It has also surveyed market needs and opportunities, identifying focus areas in the tourism sector and how to meet significant demand for rural crafts, for natural and indigenous products and for ‘fairly traded’ products.

Rural producers commonly face the problems of a lack of access to raw materials for production or packaging, to telecommunications, and to warehousing and transport for their goods. There is an absence of basic business skills and marketing knowledge and, generally, a lack of exposure to contemporary aesthetic trends and preferences in urban markets.

The concerns of prospective buyers and retailers range around consistency in product quality, delivery lead times, limitations on quantities and the absence of formal business systems amongst rural producers.

In spite of these obstacles, MDA has seen some large orders secured and met, via various business models that have been developed to bridge the gap. In Teixeira’s view the challenge is to support and orientate rural producers to deliver the ‘right’ products to mainstream markets at the required scale, consistently and within a contractual framework of transactions.

“We need to consider different ways of doing this,” says Teixeira. “Franchising is one option. It’s working for Streetwise, an agency in Cape Town that has been able to increase delivery quantities on the wirework crafts that it markets by franchising a number of production groups.

Another alternative is to form co-operatives, where a number of entrepreneurs in the same or allied fields come together to share the economic risk of an investment that will support all their businesses. MDA’s function is to facilitate these kinds of arrangements, by providing platforms for exchange between rural producers and formal business and by bringing together potential partners in a contractually brokered process.”

Mhala’s marula products
In Mhala near Bushbuckridge in Limpopo, 2 400 people, mainly women, are earning incomes from the fruit of the indigenous marula tree. In this pilot project , MDA has developed a production network in the lo_cal community to transform this indigenous resource into marketable products on a commercial basis. By interacting with the people of the district, MDA’s local community organiser has seen marula committees set up in 42 local villages. The villagers harvest the fruit and participate in its processing at the Mhala Development Centre, to produce a marula fruit pulp that is sold to juice manufacturers and marula oil, which is pressed from the kernels and is used in cosmetics. Mhala has recently supplied its first big order of 2,5 tonnes of marula oil to a European buyer.

The social impact of this enterprise is already enormous and the opportunity exists for the commercialisation of the marula resource in other rural areas where the trees grow naturally and prolifically. If orders for higher volumes of the marula products can be secured, the income earning opportunities from this natural resource could be extended to some 24 000 people in villages across the marula belt. MDA has established that at this level of supply there would be no threat to the current natural marula resource. It is working with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to ensure that the principles of community forestry are applied to extensions of the programme. The commercialisation of the marula resource is seen to be promoting its cultivation rather than depletion.

Mosaics and metalwork
In the mining town of Klerksdorp, south-west of Johannesburg, MDA was instrumental in establishing Katleho, which is now a small independent enterprise. It began as a group of people from the community who obtained skills training and artistic direction in mosaic work, as well as business counselling at the MDA development centre in the town. Through word-of-mouth and direct marketing, the group was commissioned to undertake a number of commercial mosaic installations. Subsequently, as they developed a range of products that incorporate mosaic applications – mirrors, table tops, photo-frames – and expanded their skills base and capacity to meet limited volume retail orders, the group has grown to become a viable business enterprise.

Metalwork is another skill that has opened up opportunities for the Klerksdorp community. Trainees have extended their skills from the basics of making building components such as metal window and door frames, burglar bars and fencing, into furniture products such as metal table frames (some with mosaic table tops), chairs and lamp stands. The need here is to obtain ongoing orders in significant volumes to support this operation as a sustainable enterprise.

Lesotho sandstone
On a koppie overlooking Maseru in Lesotho, a co-operative of about 30men (mostly ex-mineworkers) and women, cut sandstone from the Nthabiseng Bus Stop Quarry. They create unique carvings as well as sandstone building blocks, facing stonesP and flagstones. With MDA’s assistance, new products such as basins, bowls, flowerpots, candlesticks and other decorative ware have been developed. MDA is facilitating the establishment of partnerships that will bridge the gap from Maseru and other sandstone cutting centres in Lesotho to South Africa’s urban markets, to enable the stonecutters to develop a sustainable livelihood from their work. One of SA’s new home store chains has commissioned 1 300 pieces in a range of sandstone bathroom accessories.

Farming on mine land
Agriculture is a favoured enterprise among ex-mineworkers and MDA is looking at opportunities for miners and ex-miners to use mine land for agriculture.

Some mines allow workers to graze their cattle on mine land, either temporarily until the workers transport the cattle to their homes or as an ongoing arrangement. A number of the leading mining houses are looking at granting mine land to other agricultural uses, particularly where shafts have been closed and mineworkers retrenched. In partnership with the Eco-Circles Foundation, MDA is currently preparing a proposal to put 100 ha of unused land at one of the Welkom mines under cultivation in organic farming. This would provide 600 self-employment opportunities for former mineworkers. Organic farming has the advantage that market demand is well established and the channels to supply retailers already exist.

MDA is also looking at strategies to assist ex-mineworkers who are farming sheep in the Eastern Cape. This is South Africa’s leading wool producing region and home to more than 80% of the national sheep flock – most of which, according to MDA, is owned by ex-mineworkers. The agency has recently formed a partnership with the National Wool Growers Association to introduce better farming practices amongst small-scale sheep farmers so that they can improve their stock and deliver wool of a higher quality to a growing market where demand is well beyond current supply levels.

Recycling plastics
MDA recently played a role in facilitating, with Kunye cc based in Cape Town, an order from a UK company, and delivery on it, of 3 000 plastic chickens – the kind that are seen for sale on the roadside in Johannesburg. The chickens are handcrafted from waste plastic, woven to a wire frame. Other orders have since been received for handcrafted pink plastic pigs, for delivery to Japan and for zebras in black and white plastic. MDA is investigating possible partnerships with a group of women at the Leprosy Mission of SA, as well as other plastic craft groups, and the Plastics Federation – representing the South African plastics industry – to secure raw materials, in the form of waste plastics collected for recycling, to meet market demand. Waste plastic is also used innovatively to produce items such as handbags, cushions, bedspreads and rugs, which are surprisingly soft to the touch and each item is unique.

Rehabilitating gold mine tailings
The tailings dams of gold mines (and others), which are built up from the fine-grained waste ore after it has been processed, are chemically and physically unsuitable for plant growth and are, in effect, life denying. There is a general legislated requirement that places the responsibility with mining companies to rehabilitate their waste sites and, although there are no well-defined measures for the level to which such sites should be restored, there are a number of environmental companies active in this field. Piet van Deventer, research & development manager at Envirogreen, spoke about the process that his company uses to rehabilitate tailings dams to a level that will sustain vegetation growth, regenerate a localised ecology and, over time, support alternative land uses.

Envirogreen is currently involved in about 80 different rehabilitation projects throughout South Africa’s gold mining regions, which stretch across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and the Free State. Van Deventer explains that gold mining generates a particularly high requirement for rehabilitation. Because of the mineralogy of the gold bearing reefs – specifically the pyrite associated with them, and because of the chemicals used to process the ore and extract the gold, the waste tailings contain high levels of acids and salts. The base material of the tailings dams is crushed rock that has been processed to a fine dense powder and is completely infertile.

Rehabilitation
The principle concern in rehabilitation of this material is to neutralise the acids chemically, which is done primarily by adding ordinary agricultural lime to the dams. However, the process of returning the land to a level that will sustain life is considerably more complex and differs in the fine-tuning of the chemical and other components at each site.

Analysis
The first step entails a chemical analysis of material samples taken from the tailings. These are assessed on a range of measures, including the pH of the material, its salinity (and consequent electrical conductivity), levels of plant nutrients and fertility. Based on this analysis, requirements for compensatory or counteractive chemicals are calculated – the level of lime to be applied to the site, of composts and other organic materials, fertilisers and water.

Amelioration
The initial amelioration process can take between a month and a year, before the ‘soil’ is of a composition that will support normal vegetation growth. For gold mine tailings, lime is always the major component of the rehabilitative chemical mix. Organic materials are drawn from whatever sources are available in the vicinity to suit the specific requirements of the site and can range from farm manure to sewage sludge to nursery compost, among others.

Material samples from the site are assessed at three-monthly intervals to gauge the effect of the ameliorative additives. This sampling and assessment process continues throughout the rehabilitation programme and assists in determining the most appropriate plant materials and keeping track of the changes in the composition of the soil. Generally, the sample analyses are undertaken by the Agricultural Research Council.

Pioneer crops
Commonly referred to as ‘mother crops’, pioneer crops are planted on the tailings site as soon as possible after the amelioration process. Wheat is one of the crops typically used in this application and, while it has been tested as fit for harvesting and consumption, Van Deventer says that the rehabilitation process requires that the pioneer crops should be left to see through a natural annual cycle on the rehabilitation site. The organic material from the plants is then returned to the land. The pioneer crops also serve to attract birds, insects and other wildlife – and so establish the beginnings of a reviving ecology on the previously barren waste sites. They have the further benefit of acting as a wind trap and limiting the dust pollution blown from the tailings dams during the dry winter months.

Other annuals often used as pioneer crops are canola – an oil-seed plant that is especially effective in extremely acidic materials – and teff grass.

Indigenous planting
In the second planting season, indigenous grasses and sometimes trees and shrubs that are typical to the locality are seeded or planted on the site. The constituents of the soil also influence species selection and this often requires trial areas to be planted out before an optimum vegetation cover is determined.

According to Van Deventer, thatching grass (Hyparrhenia hirta), for example, is especially useful in counteracting aluminium toxicity in the soil. With regard to trees, which are generally planted in clusters as they would naturally grow, the sweet thorn (Acacia karroo) survives almost anywhere, the river bushwillow (Combretum erythrophyllum_) is suitable in wet soils and the white karee (Rhus pendulina) can be widely used, although it does not survive in soils that are too saline.

In current research, species such as the wild olive (Olea europaea subs africana) and white stinkwood (Celtis africana) are being evaluated for rehabilitation sites. Envirogreen has an ongoing species research and selection programme to support appropriate planting where specific chemical or climatic problems are encountered. It has established a number of nurseries at different centres across the mining provinces and, at some of these, specially adapted plants are cloned for use on sites in particular areas or with particular problems.

Exotics such as the Australian blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) and one of the Eucalyptus species are also used in certain cases, as these trees have shown the capacity to adapt to and counter specific problems. When invasive, exotic species are to be used, permits have to be obtained for localised planting (category 2 invaders) from the Directorate of Land Use and Soil Management at the Department of Agriculture.

Intensive maintenance
An intensive maintenance programme is followed for a period after the indigenous planting of the site. This involves irrigation, reseeding where necessary, fertilisation and the addition of lime or compost as required.

Low care maintenance
About two years after the rehabilitation programme has been started, a low care maintenance programme can be adopted, where the plant growth and the ecology it has spawned have become virtually self-sustaining. At this stage ‘touch-ups’ are attended to – where barren patches are replanted or reconstituted as necessary. In spite of the low intensity of these operations, the low care maintenance programme is vital to support the new ecosystem.

Alternative end uses
One of the factors that restrict alternative end uses for the rehabilitated land is the form of the tailings dams, which are typically piled in sequential levels of diminishing area, each about 40 m high and with edges sloped at 35°. In many cases the side slopes have to be flattened to a shallower gradient (about 15°) simply to enable access to the site for rehabilitation and, increasingly, some mining houses are establishing tailings dams with shallower angles. The problem with a 35° slope is that it limits access for people and, for example, cattle, and does not allow for machinery or equipment to be used. Nonetheless, the plateaux at the top of the rehabilitated tailings dams present a significant surface area that can either be maintained as a wilderness area or used for agriculture or forestry.

The cultivation of thatching grass, which simply reseeds itself after the first planting, is one agricultural alternative. The land can also be used for livestock grazing or for the cultivation of crops or vegetables. Research has demonstrated that vegetables grown on rehabilitated tailings sites are fit for consumption. In a programme of testing which was conducted across a number of sites over three years, Envirogreen was able to ascertain that there were no traces of harmful chemicals, radiation or heavy metals in the vegetables grown on these sites. However, vegetable farming is a relatively costly enterprise and requires considerably higher levels of irrigation than for example, thatching grass or timber.

Other crops like the wheat or canola planted previously also do well on rehabilitated sites, but such cultivation on an ongoing basis typically requires ploughing, planting and harvesting equipment.

Along with thatching grass, timber cultivation is a favoured alternative, particularly where opportunities are sought to involve the local community in new business ventures. This is a route that many mines are investigating, in collaboration with surrounding communities – although here too, Van Deventer warns, there are obstacles. Before any commercial cultivation can take place the rehabilitated sites have to be certified by the Department of Minerals and Energy. Such ‘closure’ certificates are usually based on the site having been monitored for a period of at least five years, with recorded measurements demonstrating continuous improvements in the tailings material and the vegetation cover. In addition, the National Nuclear Regulator has to check the land and cer_tify that it no longer presents a hazard in terms of radioactive dust pollution or similar. If forestry is to be practised, permits have to be obtained from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. So the route to establishing community enterprises on rehabilitated mine wastelands is not straightforward and can also call for substantial capital investment.

Reclamation of rehabilitated tailings
When the gold price rises (as it has recently), mining companies will quite often decide to re-mine already rehabilitated tailings dams. The decision is taken swiftly and, if the infrastructure exists, re-mining can begin within weeks. Once the tailings have been reprocessed, which can take up to three years, the rehabilitation programme begins over again. Van Deventer comments that, in such cases, the footprint of the original tailings dam is easier to rehabilitate because it is closer to the natural – although highly polluted – soil. The newly formed tailings dams resulting from the re-mining, of course, present another challenge.

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WATER

The Blue Revolution Water and sustainable development
Water and sanitation will be high on the agenda of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Without water there is no food security, no business and no development. The figures are astounding: more than a billion people world-wide have no access to safe water, more than two billion lack access to sanitation. The largest percentage of people without access to these services resides in Africa – more than 300 million people do not have potable water. It has been said that a rural woman of 60 will have spent 15 years of her life walking long distances to fetch water and standing in queues for water that might not even be suitable for consumption.

When faced with these figures, it is easy to understand those who believe that the world has not made much progress in alleviating the situation. In fact, given the effect of ever-increasing populations, the burden seems to be increasing. However, it is often forgotten that the ‘blue revolution’, as Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, has so eloquently named it, is not about providing people with adequate water and sanitation. Nor is it about water resource management or even the protection of the environment: far greater than these issues is the need to eradicate poverty.

Speaking at a ministerial meeting on health and sustainable development earlier this year, South African Minister of Water Affairs & Forestry Ronnie Kasrils said: “We have not sought to make water a core issue for the conference. Rather, what we are doing is using water to show how we need to approach development to ensure that it is effective and sustainable. What we are emphasising is that the key to dealing with these issues does not lie in the water sector. The key to achieving our water goals is to improve the international environment in which we work.”

This relationship between water, food security, environment and access to international markets was also highlighted by the African Ministerial Conference on Water held in Abuja, Nigeria, earlier this year. “Africa’s water ministers have realised that efficient and sustainable use of limited water resources, effective application of science and technology, and regional investment in irrigated agriculture and aquaculture should focus as much on economic development and income generation as on food security,” reported Mike Muller, director-general of the South African Department of Water Affairs & Forestry. “It has been concluded that partnerships should be built and the regional and international trade situation examined to remove trade barriers restricting the trade of African products and to create a fair exchange of agricultural produce.”

There has also been a realisation that Africans, rather than remain dependent on international aid, should look to resources closer to home to finance development and improve the continent’s situation. “As in the rest of the world, trade and direct foreign investment will be the main drivers of higher growth and employment generation,” commented KY Amoako, executive secretary of the Economic Commission of Africa, in his keynote address at the African Development Bank symposium earlier this year.

Kasrils underlined this statement: “...in the spirit of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), rather than simply holding out our hands for more aid, what we are saying is that we need to create conditions in which communities and countries are able to provide for themselves. That requires economic growth, it requires investment, it requires access to markets for poor countries. This means that processes such as the World Trade Organisation and Finance for Development negotiations need to be linked to the WSSD.”

There have been strong moves towards cooperation in the African water sector in the run up to the Summit. It has been realised that water can make an immense difference to the development of the continent, if managed well and used wisely. “Given clear policies and strategies and real commitment to action, water can be used to alleviate the poverty that plagues so many African countries,” said Muller. “Meetings, such as those held in Nigeria and its forerunner in Ghana, are extremely important, as they show the world that Africa has a clear understanding of the challenges it faces in the water sector, and that it is now acting collectively to overcome these challenges.”

A number of challenges have been identified. Firstly, while water is abundant in Africa on a regional scale, it is unevenly distributed by nature. While a few African countries have high annual averages of rainfall, many already or soon will face the water-stress of scarcity conditions where substantial investments will be required to meet the needs of the populations. More than 400 million people are expected to be living in at least 17 water-scarce African countries by 2010. Their lack of adequate water will severely constrain food production, ecosystem protection and socio-economic development. Moreover, aquatic species, habitats and ecosystems are at risk. With increasing water demand throughout the continent to provide for greater food demands, industrial expansion, rural and urban growth, less water is available for maintaining aquatic ecosystems.

As a result of these factors, it has been recognised that integrated management, utilisation, development and protection of water resources, which recognises social, economic and environmental needs, should become a national and regional priority.

Due to climate variability, the potential effects of climate change on water resources, recurring droughts leading to chronic water shortages and floods in many parts of the continent, many African countries are becoming increasingly vulnerable to water-related crises. This is exacerbated by the fact that per capita water storage in Africa is 100 times lower than in Europe and North America. More than 300 million African people still have no access to safe drinking water, with even more lacking adequate sanitation. This contributes to poverty and ill health. Specific actions have been called for to overcome the huge challenge of ensuring that the proportion of Africans without access to safe drinking water and sanitation is reduced by 75% by 2015 and by 95% by 2025, including actions to promote improved hygiene.

It is estimated that an annual investment level of US$20 billion is needed for the development of water infrastructure, while an initial investment of US$10 billion a year is required to meet urgent water needs – US$6 billion to meet basic water supply and sanitation targets, US$2 billion to promote irrigated agriculture and US$2 billion to support institutional development, capacity building, research, education and information management.

Lastly, more than 50 large watersheds, river basins and lakes in Africa are shared by two or more countries. Most of them are without any agreements on equitable use and/or environmental protection. It has been recognised that national and international shared water resources are instruments for regional cooperation, development and integration. The lack of cooperative arrangements in these basins and the institutional and financial weaknesses of the existing ones undermine the potential benefits to the continent.

However, while most of these issues seem to revolve around political will, the role of private institutions should not be discounted. The private sector has a long history of providing governments with the necessary technical expertise to reach its development goals.

Leading water research organisations, such as the Water Research Commission (WRC), have added their own challenges which they would like to see addressed at the WSSD. “Countries such as South Africa already have water policies that recognise the importance of redressing past imbalances through the promotion of participation of all stakeholders, especially women and children in the decision-making on water resource and management issues,” was the WRC’s comment. “However, we are still faced with the challenge of finding appropriate tools and guidelines to support effective public participation in water management. The organisation also believes that research and technology can play a pivotal role in alleviating poverty through areas such as sustainable water resource management. However, above all, poverty alleviation should form a focal point for other issues and should be addressed in a manner that will ensure sustainability of service.” The WRC also recognises the need to maintain the appropriate balance between water resource development and protection.

Many are hoping that the WSSD process will see governments commit themselves to firm goals to be achieved within defined time frames. For the African water sector it is a chance to state its case. “Africa has the chance to show the world its united commitment to ensuring the sustainability of its water resources. We are confident that this united effort will be rewarded,” concluded Muller.

Water supply and sanitation in dense settlements
Since 1994, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) has extended clean water supply to seven million people in South Africa who previously did not have access to clean piped water. With service delivery continuing at the present rate, the aim is to overcome the water supply backlog – extending service infrastructure to reach a further seven million people – by 2010. The Department, however, faces the parallel challenge presented by inadequate sanitation and waste management systems, particularly in densely populated urban and peri-urban settlements where these problems impact on water pollution and contribute to perpetuating waterborne disease. Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ronnie Kasrils, has committed his department to increasing investments in sanitation programmes, alongside its delivery of water supply services.

The problem of water pollution in densely populated and under-serviced settlements threatens the health of the communities living there, as well as that of downstream users, and is seen by DWAF as one of the biggest threats to South Africa’s water resources. The causes of such pollution are complex. In 1997, DWAF initiated the ‘Dense Settlements’ project, with assistance from the Danish government, to develop and test new approaches to address this problem. A project team was set up within the Department and after an initial phase of determining a workable methodology, the project tested its ‘structured facilitation’ approach – with modifications – in nine pilot cases, one in each province. In March this year DWAF announced the launch of its Working for Clean and Healthy Communities programme, which results from the pilot studies and is directed at rolling out this problem-solving approach in settlements around the country.

The approach
Water pollution in dense settlements is deeply rooted in the socio-economic conditions that prevail in our poorest communities and is affected also by a lack of capacity in local government to manage and maintain waste and sanitation services. The problem is often compounded by non-payment, vandalism or misuse of services and a lack of communication between the local authority and the community.

Early work on the Dense Settlements project indicated that pollution invariably has three causes, which are often interrelated in a complex web:
•            physical causes, linked to the physical breakdown of sanitation and waste services infrastructure;
•            social causes, linked to the way in which the services are used; and
•            institutional causes, linked to maintenance of the services by the service providers.

Physical breakdown of the infrastructure may arise, for example, from non-payment for services. Without payment the service provider is robbed of maintenance funds. However, non-payment may arise from community dissatisfaction with the service or its maintenance. In turn, the service provider may argue against maintenance because services are being misused. This kind of cycle leads to a complete deterioration of the system and results in polluted water resources and unhealthy living conditions.

Past solutions that usually addressed only the physical causes and sought to repair physical systems have proven unsustainable. The Dense Settlements project took the approach of helping the community and the local authority to identify and address the underlying causes of the pollution problem together.

The process – nine pilot cases
A series of workshops was held in each province to advise local authorities of the proposed approach. Through this process, the project team reached 135 local authorities. A subsequent national workshop, which brought together those authorities interested in pursuing local projects, led to an invitation for project proposals to be submitted to the project team. From the proposals received, nine pilot cases were selected: in Monnakato, North West Province; Phagameng/Nylstroom in Limpopo; Cairn in Mpumalanga; Kliptown in Gauteng; Burlington Halt in KwaZulu-Natal; Phuthaditjhaba in the Free State; Masizakhe in Northern Cape; Kaya Mandi in the Western Cape; and Rini in the Eastern Cape.

In each pilot, a Test Case Steering Committee (TCSC) was set up, involving representatives of the local authority, the community and, in those cases where water supply, sanitation or waste removal services were outsourced, the respective service providers. Each TCSC was required to identify the main causes of pollution in their settlement and to recommend proposed interventions. This was done through workshops, facilitated by trained staff, where the concerned parties jointly investigated the problems in increasing detail, until they determined the root causes. Solutions were then directed at addressing the physical as well as the social and institutional problems, with the recognition that such solutions are more effective and more sustainable.

The problems, proposed interventions and priorities differed from case to case, although there were common factors. Bush toileting is the last resort for people living in communities where pit latrines, bucket systems or communal toilets are neither consistently cleaned nor maintained. Pit latrines, for example, are sometimes used to dump solid waste, in communities where solid waste removal services are inadequate or poorly understood. This clearly creates a maintenance problem and over time the neglected latrines are no longer used. Seepage from blocked latrines pollutes the groundwater and any nearby waterways. Other problems of general litter and runoff from communal standpipes, where effective drainage is not installed, add to the pollution of surface water running through the settlements.

In the pilot cases, interventions focused on a range of action programmes in the different communities, to address the typically interrelated problems of sanitation, waste disposal and drainage. Contractors were called in where required and local labour was involved in various programmes, to support a transfer of skills and knowledge as far as possible.

Funding support from the Danish environmental development agency, DANCED, was administered through the Dense Settlements project office and the project team, playing a facilitative role, assisted the steering committees through the project implementation process. Members of the team visited the pilot projects on a regular basis, providing guidance and sharing experiences and possible solutions across the different cases.

Final reports from the respective TCSCs indicate that the approach has been broadly effective. This is attributed to the fact that it is highly participatory and enables the local authorities, communities and service providers to solve their problems together. It creates a better understanding among the parties and lays the foundation for a constructive ongoing relationship.

The results of the test cases have shown – to varying degrees – improved service provision, improved community health and a reduction in the pollution load reaching water resources. Some highlights from the test case reports illustrate measured improvements.
•            In Burlington Halt, improved communication between the community and service providers has lead to the amount of waste removed for safe disposal increasing from 4,4 tonnes to 7,7 tonnes a month.
•            In Monnakato, payment for services has jumped from 7% to 70%.
•            In Kliptown, the incidence of diarrhoea has decreased by 50% and pollution loads in the Klip River have fallen. The community now manages its own grey water disposal system.
•            In Kaya Mandi, the community is collecting money to pay toilet block supervisors who will ensure the communal toilets are kept clean and used properly.

The DWAF Dense Settlements project team reports that in all the test cases communities are now more aware of their role in pollution, of what they can do to keep their settlements clean and of the local authorities’ responsibility to provide efficient services. Many of the local officials involved in the pilot cases have also indicated that they have a better understanding of their communities’ needs and a greater sympathy for their circumstances.

Clean and healthy communities
Working from this basis, where the pilot projects have already improved the living conditions for many South Africans, DWAF and DANCED are looking to extend this approach to settlements across the country. Hence the launch of the Working for Clean and Healthy Communities programme. This aims to motivate local government to use this approach to improve services delivery, to contribute to their integrated development plans and to address pollution in local settlements. The process has begun with the distribution of project materials to local authorities around South Africa.

In addition, the project team has established links with the Consolidated Municipal Infrastructure Programme (CMIP) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Both these agencies, which fund infrastructure and services delivery in local government, have eoxpressed their support for the DWAF programme. The next step will see the initiation of joint projects between DWAF and CMIP or DBSA. Regional offices of the department will identify settlements with known pollution and water quality problems and the local authorities and service providers to these communities will be encouraged to apply for financial support from DBSA or CMIP for specific projects to improve service infrastructure and maintenance. The project team will provide ongoing technical and mentoring support to new projects in this programme.

Community champions
One of the main lessons learnt from the test cases is that the joint problem solving process is often more significant than the actual outcomes. The most successful test cases were those largely driven by community champions. Volunteerism plays an important part in making such projects work. At the launch of the Working for Clean and Healthy Communities programme, Kasrils reiterated President Thabo Mbeki’s appeal to all South Africans to stand up and lend a hand in creating a better life for all:“Vuk’ uzenzele.

Tackling water demand management, conservation and development
Rand Water, a water utility company, makes its living by selling a natural resource – it is therefore appropriate that the company should have a strong record of environmental care. Its interventions range from applying Environmental Management Systems through to its core business, large-scale environmental education initiatives and continuing its social responsibility in projects such as funding community ecotourism.

Catchment management is good for tourism
Not only does the Mnweni catchment supply some of the best water in South Africa, it boasts magnificent mountain scenery.

Mlayo Miya lives in the Mnweni mountain wilderness area which lies between the Royal Natal National Park and Cathedral Peak in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg. Miya is 35 years old and has only ever had one full time job working at a factory in Johannesburg, something he did for four years. For the past five years, however, Miya has been unemployed, a difficult situation since he has four children and a wife to support. Miya is therefore very keen that the Mnweni community ecotourism facility should be a success. He identifies himself proudly as a ‘Mnweni guide’ and takes our party for a short walk to show off his knowledge of safety, first aid and environmental care. There are wonderful walks along both the Mnweni and Tonyelani Rivers, and we are about to sample just a little of the area’s breathtaking beauty with smooth vertical rock faces, spear-like pinnacles and crystal clear streams.

But first Miya hands a building trowel back to his friends. He has been plastering walls but now it’s time to brush the cement off his fingers and don his guide’s hat. In spite of the fact that it’s a Sunday, all are hard at work building a tourism centre consisting of four rondawels, an office, a kitchen/education centre and ablution block, built in traditional Zulu style.

The Mnweni Triangle is one of the most important water catchments in South Africa and it shares a common border with Lesotho in the west. It is part of the Drakensberg/Maluti Transfrontier Park. The Mnweni River is fed by six tributaries which originate high in the sheer slopes of the magnificent Drakensberg escarpment. The Mnweni is part of the upper Tugela catchment and mostly under the control of tribal authorities. High unemployment means that people are reliant on natural resources for subsistence. Population growth in the more mountainous areas has led to overgrazing and road building has caused erosion and river siltation.

We are on this walk with veteran conservationist Keith Cooper, a trustee of the Mnweni Trust. Cooper suggested many years ago that the community should derive benefits both from the high quality water on its land which was being pumped over the ‘Berg and into the Vaal Dam and from the natural beauty of the area. Hikers were already exploiting the mountain walks without paying the local people one cent.

The Rand Water Mnweni Trust was launched in 1999 as the culmination of a long association between Rand Water, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA), Bergwatch and the communities of the AmaNgwane in the Upper Mnweni Valley of the Drakensberg. The project aims to increase sustainable development in the area by over 25% within the next decade. The KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Authority sponsored the initial infrastructure for a Mnweni Cultural and Community Centre.

Rand Water then put R2 million into the trust with the intention that projects would be financed from the interest earned – which means that money is always available. One of the initiatives, a veld reclamation programme (including donga rehabilitation) has begun in partnership with the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, the Farmer Support Group and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture. This programme is aimed at establishing a re-vegetation plan with targeted communal grazing areas, and vetiver grass is utilised to reduce soil erosion and water runoff. Vetiver is also a good thatching and weaving grass and has the potential to provide an alternative income for families.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism then gave R2,26million from its Poverty Relief Fund for the construction of the visitor centre. It is hoped that quite a number of jobs will be generated for local people as trail guides. There are also trout in the rivers for fishing and crafts could be sold at the centre. The mountains are rich in rock art which is currently being documented by experts. One can only see the art under the guidance of one of the official guides and Miya tells us sternly, “Look but don’t touch,” before we admire a painting depicting eland and other animals.

The Trust is committed to assisting communities protect natural and cultural resources (such as rock art). Community members have been trained in ecology and community based tourism.

Neutralising water consumption at the Summit
An innovative concept will ensure that there is on-the-ground delivery resulting directly from Johannesburg’s hosting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. By funding community water projects, delegates can offset their water consumption at the Summit.

The Water Neutral initiative, which was discussed in the previous issue of Urban Green File (May/June 2002), is a partnership between South African Breweries (SAB), the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and Roundabout – manufacturers of the Play Pump. The initiative sets out to offset the increase in water consumption during the Summit by delivering community water ‘offset’ projects. At the time of writing, the initiative was being set up as a Section 21 (not-for-profit) organsation with a board of trustees. The trust’s account will be managed by the Development Bank of South Africa. The bank will have a representative on the organisations’s board of trustees providing technial input and ensuring the offset is dispersed appropriately. The secretaries to the trustees will be Babs Naidoo, Director of Communications at DWAF and Pancho Ndebele, Environmental Consultant at SAB.

“Delegates (businesses as well as individuals) will be encouraged to purchase Water Neutral certificates so as to offset their water consumption during the Summit,” says Ndebele. “We estimate that each delegate will consume 200l/day. These certificates will generate US$170 000 (about R1,7million) which will be equivalent to the cost of the water consumed during the Summit. To generate this amount, role players in the water sector will be actively targeted.”

The costs of various certificates will be:
$35 for a Water Neutral certificate
$500 for a ‘Angel’ certificate
$3500 for a ‘Niagara’ certificate
$5250 for a ‘Victoria’ certificate

Offset projects include the provision of play pumps to rural communities without clean water, and a sanitation project in Alexandra. “We are careful in choosing offset projects – the key is appropriate technology. We may for instance in future sponsor the installation of solar powered boreholes rather than play pumps, as the play pumps might be appropriate for schools but communities of older people will surely not be that keen to play on a roundabout in order to get water!” says Ndebele

An important aspect of sustainable development and sustainable water provision is maintenance. So often a water supply scheme is installed only to fall into disrepair within a couple of years due to a lack of maintenance. However, the reservoirs for the play pumps are placed on top of scaffolding to generate water pressure. Billboards are then positioned around the tanks. The idea is for sponsors to buy the advertising space on an annual basis and to use this income for ongoing maintenance. It will also be important to transfer skills by training local people to maintain the equipment.

SAB at World Summit
The Water Neutral Initiative is a contribution towards the Greening the Summit initiative by DWAF, SAB and its partners. The initiative will be showcased at Ubuntu Village and the Water Dome. These include glass recycling and collection, where delegates will be able to dispose of glass bottles in special bins and these bottles will be taken to a container station at the Ubuntu Food and Beverages site where they will be converted into drinking glasses, individually hand-cut decanters and vases. Glass pieces from broken bottles will be collected and sent to a bottle manufacturer to be turned into new bottles.

Rehabilitation of green open space in Moroka, Soweto
The rehabilitation and upgrading of the Moroka Dam and adjacent open space will re-establish a sequence of linked parks in the Moroka Valley, which follows a tributary of the Klipspruit. The project had evolved as a pilot implementation programme out of a series of open space framework studies prepared over the past few years. Planning and rehabilitation work gathered momentum at the end of 2001, when the development of the newly named Thokoza and Moroka Link Parks was identified as a Mayoral Summit Showcase Project. Graham Young of Newtown Landscape Architects and Chris Brooker of CBA specialist engineers spoke about the project.

The Thokoza and Moroka Link Parks form part of the Mofolo-Moroka Open Space Development Framework (March 2000) that was prepared by Newtown Landscape Architects (NLA) for the then Southern Metropolitan Local Council, as a key element of the Integrated Development Plan for Soweto. This study noted an alarming deterioration in the environment of Greater Soweto, attributed mainly to the pressures imposed by a fast-growing population. It sought to identify remaining natural and, particularly, sensitive areas – primarily the rivers and ridges – that should be conserved for their ecological value and for community use.

The development framework proposes that these natural areas be linked to existing, though often neglected and underused parks, to create an integrated green open space network and recreational opportunities for people living in the south-western townships. The Thokoza and Moroka Link Parks must therefore be recognised as part of a much wider open space development and upgrading plan for Soweto.

A subsequent study, focusing on the Klipspruit River Corridor which includes the Moroka Valley, was prepared by Oryx Environmental and NLA, with funding from the Danish environmental development agency, DANCED (August 2000). This study sets out proposals for a managed open space system, drawing on the same principles as those defined in the Mofola-Moroka planning framework, to develop the Klipspruit River Corridor as an ecological, recreational and economic asset. One of DANCED’s requirements was that pilot projects should be identified for implementation, to demonstrate the principles underlying the proposals for development of the open space network.

Thokoza Park, formerly known as Morokaspruit Park and bordering the Moroka Dam, was selected as the pilot project because it would allow for a noticeable improvement to be achieved with the limited funding from DANCED. A network of community structures was already in place, as a consequence of the environmental and social research, and this would facilitate implementation.

Towards the end of 2001 the Mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, saw the opportunity to maximise the impact of the pilot upgrading. The City Council committed R19 million to the project, which would enable the rehabilitation of the dam and a neglected wetland area, as well as the adjacent Moroka Link Park below the dam. Thus a World Summit showcase project was conceived and the City assigned the management of the project to the Johannesburg Roads Agency.

The parks together cover an area of about 22 ha, stretching from the wetlands at the western edge, through the area around the Moroka Dam and following the course of the stream as far as the Old Potchefstroom Road. Here there is a direct link proposed to the planned Regina Mundi Park, adjacent to the church that is a well-known Soweto landmark and provided a haven for many during the years of the struggle against Apartheid.

Challenges
The Moroka valley parkland was to a large extent poorly developed – with few or inappropriate landscaping interventions and limited tree planting, poorly maintained and, except for the area below the dam, not well used by neighbourhood communities.

The water quality of the Klipspruit system throughout the Soweto area shows high levels of contamination, from upstream mining operations and other industrial pollution, as well as from sewage spills. The Moroka wetlands, which should serve as a natural, decontaminating filter for the water from the tributary’s catchment area, were badly polluted and for some time had served as an ash dump. The dam too needed attention. As a consequence of neglect, siltation from upstream and continual runoff from unsurfaced roads in the area, it had silted up to the extent that it was overgrown by reeds. The community saw the dam as a dangerous place where the reeds provided a hide-out for criminals.

Consultation with the community and stakeholders
With the local ward councillor, the landscape architects set up a working group that involved representatives of the neighbouring communities and other stakeholders. These included the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism; the national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF); the DWAF Klipriver Forums and Working for Water; the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs (DACEL); the City of Johannesburg’s Department of Metropolitan Planning, Transportation and Environment; the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA); Johannesburg City Parks and DANCED. Initial meetings with the ward councillor and community representatives were held fortnightly at the Moroka sports facility and the development concept for the parks was finalised through a series of presentations and discussions.

Environmental Impact Management Systems (EIMS) undertook an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the proposed upgrading. DACEL exempted the project from certain requirements of the regulations, in view of the clear intention to improve the site without changing its use and on condition that an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) be submitted to the authorities. Following a fast-tracked process of calling for tenders, the consultants were appointed in December 2001 and contractors moved on site in April 2002. NLA has an Environmental Control Officer on site to ensure that the requirements of the EMP are observed throughout the implementation process.

Use of local labour
One of DANCED’s and the City Council’s requirements was that local labour should be employed and local resources used wherever possible – to the extent that a minimum of 20% of the total contract value should stay in the community. The contracts have been structured to accommodate this requirement and the Community Liaison Officer on site has the specific responsibility of employing local labour, and checking that those seeking employment on the contract site are from the local community.

Scope of work
There are four core contracts covering different aspects of the project: the rehabilitation of the dam wall and construction of a new spillway to replace the former inadequate outlet pipe; desilting of the water basin; rehabilitation of the wetland; and landscaping of the site.

The landscaping and earthworks contractors began work at the same time. Among the first tasks were the cutting of grass and trimming of trees, to open the sight lines from the neighbourhood across the open space, and the clearing of the reeds. All cuttings from the site are being chipped to be reused as mulch to nurture new plantings.

A geotechnical assessment of the dam wall indicated the rehabilitation measures required. The embankment is to be stabilised and waterproofed with a geosynthetic clay liner along its upstream face. The crest of the wall will be levelled and pedestrian routes built up to link with the sidewalk crossings over Vundla Drive to the lower area of the park. A wrought iron fence is to be installed along the dam wall to provide a safety barrier along Vundla Drive and local metalworkers are being sought to produce the fencing required.

At the time of writing, construction of the new spillway was in progress and, concurrently with the desilting of the dam, the wetlands were being reshaped. The drainage and excavation of the silt from the dam is a difficult, tedious process. The intention was to use the excavated sediment to form berms in the wetland area and to restore the edge gradients of the watercourses but this has proven impractical. The material is now being transported off-site to rehabilitate an old borrow-pit at the JRA’s nearby Nancefield depot.

In the wetland area, the ash dumps have been cleared and some of this material will be used to establish the berms that are to be grassed with Kikuyu which, although it is a recognised invader, will provide an effective sediment trap. Kikuyu was also specified because, once it is established, it can be harvested by the local people and planted in local gardens, again preventing runoff and erosion of unsurfaced earth areas. The lawned berms will provide a walking and picnicking area within the park and the wetlands will be replanted with indigenous reeds so that the decontaminating capacity of the shallow water channels is restored.

In the open land of the park, all invasive exotic trees are being removed and more than 400 new trees are being planted. Congregational nodes are being designed into the landscape, along obvious desire or destination routes. One of the key considerations in the design has been to provide clear links between the open space of the park and the pedestrian and vehicular thoroughfares of surrounding neighbourhoods. In this way, the parkland forms an integral element of the neighbourhood and is easily accessible to the community. At the same time, it promotes neighbourhood vigilance of the open space.

The involvement of the community in the planning and upgrading programme is crucial to establishing community ownership and continuing care for such an asset.

Project team:
Client: Johannesburg Roads Agency
Landscape Architects: Newtown Landscape Architects
Consulting Engineers: Chris Brooker & Associates
Environmental Consultants: Environmental Impact Management Systems
Engineering Contractor: Stefanutti & Bressan
Landscape Contractor: Countryline Landscapes & Tsems Investments

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ENERGY

Social responsibility and renewable energy options
South Africa, due to an abundance of high grade coal to run its coal-fired power stations, has the cheapest electricity in the world. At this stage it is practically impossible for renewable energy sources to compete economically with power generated by means of fossil fuel. Against this background however, Eskom, South Africa’s largest electricity utility, wishes to be in the forefront of developing alternative energy technologies. South Africa’s Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) is also encouraging development and use of renewable energy in line with global expectations regarding emission reductions.

With global warming and climate change now posing serious challenges to governments world-wide, renewable energy has to be taken seriously. The European Commission’s goal, for instance, is to try and increase the percentage of total energy production generated by renewable sources to 12% by the year 2010. And, although South Africa would like to be a forerunner in implementing renewable energy technologies, there are some problems of an economic nature that make this goal difficult to achieve.

Walking a tightrope
Since South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994, the government has pursued an ambitious electrification programme, aimed at bringing electricity to 2,5 million homes, 20 000 schools and 3 000 clinics. This does not come cheaply. But because our energy generation is so cheap compared with other countries world-wide, we have been able to realise these significant achievements without having to increase our tariffs excessively.

How do we balance our social responsibilities as a developing nation? Should we proceed with our programme to bring energy to all the people in South Africa so as to improve their quality of life? Or should we concentrate on creating cleaner air through further development of renewable energy sources that are much more expensive, and installing highly expensive clean air technologies in our power stations? This will decelerate the pace of electrification – at the expense of the many people still awaiting it. People without electricity often use wood fuel as an energy source – another environmental concern! South Africa faces a tremendous challenge in finding ways of increasing energy capacity, while at the same time being sensitive to the environment.

Somehow South Africa seems to be able to navigate this difficult path. An increased drive for renewable energy world-wide in response to the threat of pollution has resulted in South Africa looking at renewable power supply options. There are many examples of renewable energy use, particularly in remote rural areas, where connection to the electricity grid would not be economically feasible. In many instances, solar energy solutions have been successfully introduced to these communities – creating an enhanced quality of life for the people involved.

Solar energy
The DME is actively supporting non-grid electrification projects in rural areas. The department recently received a grant of more than R145million from the German government for non-grid electrification of rural areas in the Eastern Cape and North West provinces.

A number of upliftment projects have also been initiated in the Northern Province where poverty-stricken communities have been given a new lease of life through the provision of solar energy. These projects, initiated by Solcen NGO with the assistance of local and foreign fund, take a holistic approach, so that the supply of solar energy goes hand in hand with training, education, financing, management and technical assistance. Since these communities have received solar energy, a number of home industries have been started, and these are making them more self-sustainable.

With South Africa having one of the highest solar resources in the world, it makes sense to develop technologies that make use of this energy source first. Research has shown that solar energy levels in the Northern Cape, for instance, reach around 2900kWh/m2 of land surface – as compared to levels of between 2 100 and 2700 kWh/m2 in countries such as Jordan, India, Egypt and Spain – where solar energy is earmarked to be used to generate bulk electricity. Total solar potential across southern Africa amounts to some 360 GW, which is almost ten times Eskom’s current electricity output.

Eskom’s SABRE-Gen (South African Bulk Renewable Energy Generation) initiative has been investigating the use of solar energy at a large scale since 1998. Feasibility studies currently underway being done by the TSI (Technology Services International) Division of Eskom Enterprises indicate that South Africa could have the world’s first 100 MW solar power plant under construction by the end of 2003. Detailed feasibility studies on two optional technologies are in progress. Both technologies are based on the principle of concentrating solar power.

One of Eskom’s latest research projects is a pilot scheme involving a solar dish with a power conversion unit, which includes a thermal receiver and generator (see article on page 199 of this issue). This system is able to convert sunlight into electricity at higher efficiencies than any other solar technologies. The pilot project in Midrand is part of Eskom’s SABRE-Gen Solar Thermal Electric (STE) programme – aimed at the evaluation and assessment of STE technologies for implementation in southern Africa.

Wind energy
Eskom is also carrying out research on wind energy. Wind map studies by the Environmentek Division of the CSIR indicate that the most suitable sites for possible wind farms are to be found in coastal areas and in particular on the West Coast, where average wind speeds of 7,5 m/s are experienced, and in parts of the Drakensberg escarpment.

In addition, in 1996 the Oelsner group identified a site for a wind farm in Darling, located some 60 km north of Cape Town where average wind speeds of 7 m/s are experienced. A new privately owned company, Darling IPP, was founded for the purpose of generating electricity by means of wind. The DME has declared the Darling Wind Farm a National Demonstration Project. Plans are in place for the 5 000 MW wind farm to be operational by September 2002.

In the meantime, Eskom is building an experimental wind energy farm at Klipheuwel in the Western Cape, to explore the potential of using wind energy for bulk electricity generation. The farm, due to have the first turbine erected by August 2002, with final commissioning by December 2002, will consist of three wind turbines rated at about 3,2 MW.

According to Eskom’s Chief Executive, Thulani Gcabashe, developing renewable energy is particularly important for Eskom due to South Africa’s growing need for energy coupled with the desire to diversify our energy base, moving towards more sustainable energy sources. “There are a number of benefits to using wind energy. It is clean, saves energy, uses land resources sparingly, is safe and, obviously, wind won’t run out,” said Gcabashe. “Eskom is also very proud of its efforts to protect the environment and we continually seek new and innovative renewable energy solutions. At the same time we must not forget the limitations of wind – we cannot tell the wind when to blow, and the national resource is limited, meaning that wind is unlikely to play a major role in South Africa’s energy future. The intent of the current study is to define that role and to see how to place wind into its proper niche in South Africa’s energy mix.”

Gas
One of the most under-utilised clean energy sources in southern Africa is gas. Compared to the international average of 20% of the total energy usage, South Africa uses less than 2%. Globally, natural gas usage has grown tremendously over the past ten to fifteen years – both because of the clean fuel image of gas and to alleviate dependence on coal.

The DME has expressed a keen interest in promoting gas as an alternative energy source. In October last year, a number of agreements were signed between Mozambique and South Africa that will pave the way for introducing natural gas to South Africa. A Gas Bill will provide the national regulatory framework, legalising and streamlining the gas activities between the two countries, such as issuing licences, promoting competition and approving tariffs. Exploration of the Pande and Temane gas fields in Mozambique is in progress. A start has been made with the construction of a pipeline to bring this gas to South Africa at an estimated cost of R10 billion. It is anticipated that by the year 2004 some 80 million gigajoules of gas will be imported by Sasol from the Pande-Temane gas fields.

Meanwhile, the Kudu Gas Cape Power Project (see article in UGF Jul/Aug 2001 issue) is still on the cards. If sufficient gas reserves are found, gas will be transported from the Kudu gas fields in Namibia via a pipeline to the Western Cape, where the gas will be converted to energy in a combined cycle gas turbine power station. Exploration of the Kudu gas fields is still in progress.

Harnessing nature
What of the future? Dr Hannes Opperman, who initiated the upliftment programmes in the Northern Province, puts it beautifully. “We want to harness nature to help the people of Africa. Nature, in the form of sun, water and wind, is able to offer unbelievable amounts of energy. It makes sense to use nature to help the people of Africa, to lift them out of their poverty cycle. Simple technology can help to do that.”

On a larger scale, looking to the future of the South African power generation industry, Dr Steve Lennon, executive director of Resources and Strategy at Eskom, believes that by the year 2020 renewables could account for about 4 000 MW of South Africa’s generating capacity – which will be between 5% and 10% of total output. There are a number of factors that support Eskom’s research into alternative power generation technologies – including the need to diversify sources of supply and growing international concern around environmental pollution. The high reliance of South Africa on fossil fuels, particularly coal, is a cause for concern. For these reasons, it is important for Eskom to evaluate the options and to explore ways in which these can be integrated into the electricity industry in South Africa.

Neutralising the Summit’s CO₂ emissions
The Johannesburg Climate Legacy will facilitate the delivery of sustainable development projects on the ground and leave a legacy long after proceedings at the Sandton Convention Centre have closed. At the same time, the negative carbon footprint of the Summit will be neutralised.

The irony of staging international events to discuss poverty, development or environmental degradation marked by lavish banquets, extravagant celebratory functions and large numbers of privileged delegates that stay in first class hotels often goes unnoticed. The Johannesburg World Summit will again reflect this irony. The main venue, the Sandton Convention Centre surrounded by South Africa’s best hotels, is within a five minute drive of Alexandra – one of Johannesburg’s poorest areas. However, it seems that the business community has taken note this time, not only of the poverty and under-development in the host country and on the African continent, but also of the negative environmental impact that delegates at the Summit could cause.

The close to 60 000 delegates expected to stream into Johannesburg during August and September will cause a significant increase in CO₂ emissions. These emissions will mainly be generated by transportation activities – air and ground travel to Johannesburg, as well as the use of buses and taxis between hotels and venues. Other causes will be the use of electricity in hotels (mainly generated by coal power stations in South Africa) and the use of fuels like natural gas for cooking in hotels. The increased consumption of paper and generation of waste will result in further emissions. It is estimated that about 500 000 tonnes of CO₂ will be created by Summit related activities.

In response to this negative ‘carbon footprint’, South African businesses, including Eskom and Anglo American, as well as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), have conceptualised a way to offset this impact, while simultaneously contributing to sustainable development. Known as the Johannesburg Climate Legacy (JCL), this initiative will measure the CO₂ emissions of the Summit. These emissions will be ‘offset’ through investments in carbon-reducing sustainable projects across South Africa. Companies, individuals and governments can sponsor this ‘offset’ by making donations to a dedicated Trust Fund. “The aim is to raise $5 000 000 by September 2002 in order to mitigate the effects of the carbon emissions of the Summit,” says Paul Norrish of Future Forests – one of the driving organisations in this initiative.

The Climate Neutral Network has been appointed to work with South African organisations to certify the assessment of CO₂ emissions during the Summit. The daily energy usage will be reflected on a consumption barometer – probably located at the Ubuntu Village. Delegates can calculate the carbon footprint of their journey to Johannesburg and their stay, on the JCL website (www.climatelegacy.org ). They can then buy Climate Legacy Certificates to offset emissions. These are on sale from $10 for individuals and from $1000 to $100 000 in Bronze, Silver and Gold categories for corporates.

Some of the first sponsors that were listed on the JCL website (10 July 2002) included: Steven Tindall of the Waterhouse Group in New Zealand (Gold Corporate Sponsor), Bjorn Stigson – President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Silver Corporate Sponsor) and Peter Eggleston of Rio Tinto PLC (Bronze Corporate Sponsor).

Commented Eggleston: “Rio Tinto is committed to reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and ensuring that the specific actions we take have social, environmental and economic value and withstand future scrutiny. It is in this regard that we are pleased to make a $1 000 Bronze donation to the JCL project in order to offset GHG emissions associated with our participation in the World Summit event”

The ‘offset projects’
The Summit emissions will be offset through a range of carbon-reduction projects across South Africa. At the time of writing, the JCL was still busy with the project selection process. As the offset projects come on-stream, the amount of carbon they save will be subtracted from the quantity produced by the Summit. When the carbon savings are equal to the emissions from the event, the Summit’s emissions will be viewed to have been ‘neutralised’.

This publication is carbon neutral
Brooke Pattrick Publications (publishers of Urban Green File) and Henley Publishing (publishers of Sustainable Development International) have jointly published this Business and Sustainable Development special edition to coincide with the World Summit. To show their commitment to sustainable development, these publishers, together with printers Ultra Litho, are participating in the Johannesburg Climate Legacy. At the time of writing, JCL was calculating the amount of energy used and waste generated (causing CO2 emissions) to produce this publication. The publishing and printing team will purchase Climate Legacy Certificates to offset these emissions.

Managing environmental impacts of retail fuel stations
The construction of fuel filling stations and associated installations of underground fuel storage tanks is an activity which requires authorisation in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations, as promulgated in the Environment Conservation Act (Act 73, 1989, with amendments in September 1997).

Respective provincial authorities responsible for ensuring compliance with the EIA Regulations pertaining to fuel stations have issued guidelines on their information requirements and the procedures to be followed. While their common aim has been to streamline the assessment process and, at the same time, ensure that all potential impacts are addressed, the guidelines and procedures differ from one province to another. There are some questions regarding their overall effectiveness. It is suggested that government, in consultation with the oil industry, should establish national guidelines, to standardise the application and assessment process and ensure that it covers current gaps effectively.

Environmental scientists Nick Holdcroft and Nick Steytler from SRK Consulting looked at the EIA guidelines and authorisation procedures for retail fuel stations in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, in a paper presented at the conference of the International Association for Impact Assessment (SA) in October last year. Some of the questions and recommendations raised in this paper are presented here.

Environmental consultant Bronwen Griffiths, who was instrumental in drawing up initial guidelines for Gauteng when she was working at the provincial authority – the Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs (DACEL), was asked for a view on the procedures in place in Gauteng. Griffiths also pointed to the action taken by the Oil Industry Environment Committee (OIEC) with regard to the management of retail fuel stations. The OIEC represents the leading oil companies and was set up to co-ordinate the industry’s efforts to minimise its impacts on the environment.

Industry standards for leak prevention
Apart from the contextual environmental concerns surrounding retail fuel stations – such as impacts on the existing urban fabric and social dynamics of the neighbourhood, traffic build-up and impacts on the existing services infrastructure, visual impacts, noise and air pollution, and the constraints imposed on any alternative future land use per site – the immediate and perhaps most significant concerns relate to potential contamination of the soil and of ground and surface water with hazardous hydrocarbons. Secondary impacts that may arise from such contamination include the risk to public health and safety, and damage to flora and fauna in the vicinity.

The oil industry itself, in collaboration with the SA Bureau of Standards, and in some respects with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), has devised a range of measures to reduce the risks of contamination of soil and ground and surface water.

Petrol and diesel are normally held at service stations in underground storage tanks

(USTs), ranging in capacity from 4,5 m3 to 83 m3. The main source of fuel leakages at service stations has, in the past, been associated with failure of storage tanks or piping systems due to corrosion (with corroded pipework accounting for about 70% of reported failures). The oil industry, the SABS and other stakeholders are developing or revising standards and specifications to reduce the risk of corrosion and leakages in terms of the following Codes of Practice.

SABS 1535 – Glass-reinforced polyester (GRP) steel tanks for underground storage of hydrocarbons and oxygenated solvents and intended for burial horizontally (under revision) – provides the specifications for construction of storage tanks to ensure that they are protected against corrosion by a 3 mm GRP coating. The OIEC reports that all tanks installed since 1993 comply with SABS 1535.

SABS 1830 – Flexible piping for underground use at service stations and consumer installations (under development) – provides a standard for the use of non-corrosive plastic materials in pipework used to convey petroleum products. Flexible piping and appropriate fittings reduce the number of joints in pipework and thus the potential for leaks.

SABS 089 Part 3 – Installation of underground storage tanks, pumps and pipework at service stations (under revision) – deals with measures for early leak detection and prevention of spillages in fuel delivery and dispensing.

Generally, according to Holdcroft and Steytler, oil companies and service station owners provide the following assurances.

All new USTs are installed according to SABS 1535, SABS 1830 and SABS 089, Part 3, Codes of Practice.

The USTs are composite tanks, constructed of galvanised steel with a GRP coating.

A stock inventory monitoring and recording protocol is implemented at each service station and these records are audited on an ongoing basis.

Observation wells are installed around the tanks to a depth of one metre below the tanks and these are inspected on a regular basis for the presence of hydrocarbons.

Filling points for USTs are sealed units, and spillages at these points drain into a secondary tank from which the fuel can be collected and disposed of appropriately.

The service station owner is responsible for compiling a spill contingency plan in consultation with DWAF.

Additional assurance is provided for installations in sensitive environments, where double-skinned tanks are used, or the area in which the tanks are to be installed is lined with an impermeable layer of plastic sheeting or, for example, clay.

Apart from environmental concerns and the risk to public reputation for the oil companies, it is in the economic interests of the service station owners and the supplying oil companies to limit their risks of leaking fuel so as to limit their direct losses and also because of the high costs of clean-ups and rehabilitation.

Griffiths reports that in Gauteng, while the SABS Codes and requirements for EIA Regulations are generally observed by the major oil companies, risks arise in cases where small-scale operators, looking to capitalise on their small agricultural holdings, for example, apply to the authorities for approval to construct a fuel station. Often such stations are not feasible, according to Griffiths, and the chances of corners being cut or regulations ignored are higher. Fortunately, the authorities generally put a quick stop to these applications because the submission of information required in terms of the EIA Regulations is inadequate.

Another concern she highlights is the installation of ‘skid tanks’, which are temporary installations of fuel tanks to serve civil construction contracts – roadworks or similar. Here she suggests that the authorities have to be wary as refurbished tanks are commonly used and, because the installations are temporary, they do not always receive the same degree of attention in terms of industry standards and controls as are applied at permanent stations.

While general compliance with industry standards contributes significantly to reducing the risk of leaks from newly installed tanks, older installations pose another problem. This cannot be covered here in any detail but it is important to note that the oil industry is addressing this issue by adopting a phased approach, which has been developed in consultation with DWAF and the Water Research Commission.

Are provincial regulatory procedures adequate?
In the Western Cape the Department of Environmental and Cultural Affairs and Sport (DECAS) holds authority for decisions on the upgrade or installation of new USTs at fuel stations. In KwaZulu-Natal, this authority is held by the Department for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (DAEA) and in Gauteng, by DACEL. In each case, procedures have been streamlined only relatively recently (within the past two years) and it should be noted that DACEL has recently revised the guidelines for its procedures in this arena, and DECAS reportedly withdrew its guidelines at the beginning of this year, leaving a vacuum around the processing of applications. This report deals with the guidelines and procedures as they have been in use to date, in these three of South Africa’s nine provinces.

The information requirements and the regulatory procedures governing applications for authorisation to construct new filling stations or to undertake upgrades at existing stations are categorised differently in each province and are more or less stringent according to the categorisation. Broadly, projects are categorised in terms of location (in an industrial, commercial, agricultural or sensitive area); whether it is a new installation or an upgrade of an existing facility; and, if an upgrade, whether the capacity increase is greater or less than 25%.

Holdcroft and Steytler’s assessment of provincial regulatory requirements in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape concludes that, positively, they assist in streamlining the EIA application procedure and clarify the information required from applicants. The same can be said for those in Gauteng. However, two problems are raised regarding the monitoring and recording of stock inventories, a requirement that the oil companies transfer to service station owners.

Leak reporting and remediation
Although monitoring of stock levels alerts the station owner to possible leaks, the authorities are often not made aware of such an event and there are no systems in place to ensure that this happens. Consequently, the problem may be rectified at the station and the tank or pipework replaced, but the environmental damage on site is not necessarily remediated adequately, or at all.

Inconsistent product monitoring
The other problem is that monitoring practices at a great number of stations are inadequate and records are not updated consistently. Product losses and possible leaks can only be recognised if stock levels are recorded methodically and if the records are audited by authorities or independent consultants on a regular basis.

Forecourt spillage
Further concerns are raised regarding station forecourt design and the risks associated with spillages, and potential hydrocarbon contamination of surface runoff and wastewater from wash-downs. These concerns are not covered by the SABS Codes and are not always covered in provincial regulations.

The industry standard for new installations requires that, strictly, either bund walls or collection drains should be constructed around the forecourt to contain runoff and that all runoff should be directed to oil-water separators so that the hydrocarbon pollutants can be collected, for recycling by organisations like the Rose Foundation (see article below), or for disposal to hazardous waste dumps. In addition, station staff should be trained by the oil companies and/or station owners to use absorbent materials to deal with spillage on the forecourt, to limit transfer of hydrocarbons to runoff.

Recommendations
Holdcroft & Steytler recommend broader discourse between the relevant authorities and the oil companies to formulate effective national guidelines that can be used in all provinces. This would facilitate the application process and reduce the costs of applications. Specifically they propose:
•            regular auditing of product loss records, possibly by an appointed independent organisation;
•            compulsory annual pressure testing for all tanks over five years old;
•            national guidelines on acceptable and unacceptable levels of product loss from USTs;
•            generic design criteria for new stations to ensure that forecourts are sealed and that all wash water and runoff is directed via oil-water separators before being discharged into the stormwater system;
•            and that the oil companies establish a database of USTs under their control, including location, capacity, type and age of the tanks, for submission to the relevant authorities to assist in planning routine checks and site audits.

Other considerations
Griffiths makes the point that while there are more and less environmentally responsible players amongst the major fuel companies, most of them operate according to international standards on aspects such as energy-efficiency, noise and light pollution, and considerations of visual impact in the locality – recognising that they need to win public favour rather than antipathy. Some of the oil companies are also helpful in clearing invasive vegetation and are keen to plant water wise, indigenous gardens to make their stations attractive.

She also points out that car wash systems linked to fuel stations are in most cases designed to recycle around 70% or more of the water used. The 30% wastewater run-off is directed to the sewerage system and not to stormwater.

Griffiths raises other concerns such as feasibility studies for new stations, considering recent reports from the SA Fuel Dealers Association that more than half of the country’s filling stations are operating below break-even levels and face closure. She also questions whether adequate provision is made in provincial authorisation procedures for effective decommissioning and rehabilitation where stations become defunct.

Recovery of Oil Saves the Environment
Used lubricating oil is an unpleasant combination of degraded hydrocarbons, such as benzene, xylene and toluene, heavy metals and spent chemical additives – and the best method of dealing with it, according to environmentalists, is to recycle it.

In 1995 BP, Caltex, Castrol, Engen, Agip, Mobil, Sasol, Shell, Total, Dimol, Fuchs, Germ and Valvoline joined forces to form Recovery of Oil Saves the Environment (the Rose Foundation), a non-profit organisation which co-ordinates used oil recycling.

“The main reason for the formation of the Rose Foundation was to prevent irresponsible dumping and burning of used lubricating oil,” says ceo Simon Norton. Of the 241 million litres of new lubricating oil sold in South Africa last year (mainly by the automotive and industrial sectors), 60% was destroyed during use and 15% recovered. The remaining 25% was lost in spills and leaks from vehicles, dumping, etc – or collected by smaller operators with questionable environmental controls.

“Industry in South Africa is still some way behind America and Europe in its commitment to used oil collection and recycling. Rose has upped collection rates of used oil from 29 million litres in 1996/7 to 38,5 million litres in 2001.”

The total amount of potentially recoverable oil is about 120 million litres per annum, so there is still some way to go. Before committing to used oil treatment options, the Rose Foundation commissioned the CSIR to review the hazards presented by various processes. Once the study was completed, Rose entered into agreements with a used oil refiner, three used oil fuel reprocessors and a lime producer. These agreements stipulate environmental impact audits and monitoring procedures, including controls focussing on chemical processes and site management. The environmental controls have been devised by independent scientists who regularly assess performance.

The Rose Foundation recently provided a grant to a postgraduate University of Cape Town (UCT) chemical engineering student to carry out a Life Cycle Assessment on various used oil recycling options.

To date, the lubricant industry has invested R59,9 million in collection costs as well as a further R27,7 million for constructing depots and tanks. In many other countries, used oil recycling is subsidised. South Africa’s fuel levy used to subsidise used oil collection before 1994.

Rose has set up a partnership with a private company called Oilkol which collects oil and manages storage sites in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

“An intensive used oil recycling promotion campaign was run from 1998 to 2001,” Norton points out. “After investment of R1,5 million in making and installing 700 additional mini tanks and building a R5 million new used oil depot in Port Elizabeth, the Foundation will start a new marketing campaign in 2003 to push collection volumes to higher levels.”

EduPlant – teaching sustainable living
Permaculture combines plants, animals, buildings, water, the local people and the landscape in a way that produces more energy than it uses, recycles all nutrients and waste and strives to imitate nature wherever possible. The Eskom Development Foundation has funded the Eduplant school’s permaculture competition, which is facilitated by Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA), for seven years.

The children at Nansindlela Primary School in Ingwavuma, KwaZulu-Natal, manage water resourcefully and have embarked on extensive planting of food, indigenous, shade and windbreak trees. They have permaculture lessons every week. Although the school receives minimal support from the Department of Education, it runs an excellent outreach programme into schools and communities in the area. The school also works with the nearest AIDS hospital and is an empowerment partner in provincial health and correctional services. Small wonder that Nansindlela won the highest honour in the Eskom EduPlant 2001 national schools permaculture competition.

EduPlant has been funded by Eskom through its Corporate Social Investment Portfolio, the Eskom Development Foundation, for the past seven years. In 1999 the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry joined as an Eduplant sponsor, providing funding of R500 000 per year for four consecutive years. TIKKUN provided R250 000 in 2000 and 2001. EduPlant has received endorsement from MECs, government ministers and the media. A range of companies has provided additional support in kind – Translux subsidising transport, Fruitree providing juices, BallStraathofs providing seeds and so on.

EduPlant includes workshops for educators and the publication of educational resources, and permaculture has been introduced to over 4 000 educators.

For the past seven years, FTFA has received impressive entries from hundreds of schools across the country that have designed projects to improve their environment. The best projects win prizes each year. Many of the schools are in extremely disadvantaged areas with little or no access to running water, no electricity and a high rate of unemployment amongst parents. As a result of their association with EduPlant, a great number of schools are now eating the fruit, herbs and vegetables that they grow, while others are harvesting water or benefiting from the sale of plants or of products made of recycled waste.

EduPlant is now widely acknowledged as one of the most effective schools development programmes. It won the Impumelelo Award in 2000 and was a runner up in the Mail & Guardian Investing in the Future Awards.

Africa’s first solar power pilot plant
The site for Africa’s first solar energy dish, erected as an Eskom research and demonstration project, is in Midrand. Dr Louis van Heerden from Eskom Enterprises’ TSI (Technology Services International), provided facts about this new solar power system. Van Heerden is responsible for the solar energy research programme within Eskom’s broader investigation of renewable energy resources in its SABREGen (South African Bulk Renewable Energy Generation) initiative.

The 25 kW solar dish/engine power plant has been imported as a packaged system from Stirling Energy Systems (SES) in the USA. It is seen by Eskom Research as a potential stand-alone, off-grid, power supply option and the demonstration plant will be used to evaluate the technology in this regard.

The system is mounted on a central pedestal, a hollow steel column about 3,5 m high, which is founded in concrete. A ribbed steel framework attached to the central column carries the solar dish, or collector – a parabolic arrangement of 82 mirrors, each about a metre square. The collector is controlled by two drives that enable it to move laterally and vertically to track the sun, ensuring maximum exposure of the mirrors through the sunlight receiving hours: on average the mirrors reflect 92% of incident sunlight.

On the opposite side of the pedestal a steel arm, extending about 7,5 m, carries the solar concentrator and the Stirling engine. Here, the solar energy reflected from the collecting mirrors is concentrated into a cone and this concentrated heat is used directly to drive the closed-cycle, hydrogen gas engine, which turns a generator to produce electricity.

The solar power plant is being constructed on the property of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Van Heerden describes the system as a very efficient, self-contained power supply package and the power it produces, which is conditioned by the dish system, can be fed directly to the input board at DBSA and via a standard circuit breaker into the electricity system that serves the building.

At the time of writing, all components of the system except the engine had been received. According to Van Heerden, once the engine is on site, assembly will take just one week because the structure can be put together like a Meccano set. The solar dish is due to go ‘on sun’ in the first week of July and will be launched officially during August.

SES is sending out five engineers to assist with the installation and, in the process, to train a team of Eskom engineers. This will enable Eskom, in turn, to transfer the assembly and maintenance skills required to local technicians, if the system is extended to off-grid installations around the country. The maintenance demands of the system are, reportedly, relatively simple. The mirrors need to be kept clean to operate efficiently and the engine, which is similar to a car engine, requires similar maintenance.

The dish/engine technology has been tested over the past two decades in the USA, Europe and Australia. There are at present two SES testing sites in the USA. One of the advantages of the dish/Stirling system is its conversion efficiency, which, at 29,4%, is higher than the average 16% solar-to-electric conversion rates of other solar energy technologies.

Van Heerden says that if Eskom’s demonstration plant proves efficient, operating under local conditions, and operational and maintenance costs are shown to be acceptable, the next step would be to investigate opportunities for local production – either under licence from SES or by some similar arrangement. The costs of importing the system at present are too high to make it a viable distributed generation option on a wide scale. “South Africa has some of the cheapest steel in the world, we can make the mirrors, and we have the electronics expertise to manufacture this kind of system locally,” says Van Heerden.

If local production can be negotiated and the demonstration project proves successful, the dish/Stirling system would definitely be an option for off-grid power supply. Its efficiency is advantageous and it has a greater power capacity than, for example, the photovoltaic (PV) solar home options currently installed in some rural areas in SA. While the PV home panels are designed to meet the basic electricity needs of a small house, the 25 kW dish/Stirling system has the capacity to supply the power needs of, for example, a clinic, a school and a community centre, which would make it much more useful in rural development in SA. It also has an advantage over the other commonly used off-grid power supply system of diesel-fired generators, in that it uses a renewable and non-polluting energy resource.

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FORESTRY

Forests and forestry – some key concerns
Although forests cover roughly a third of all the Earth’s land surface, the world’s forests are continuing to decline, especially in the tropics. In the 1990s, the world lost an area the size of Venezuela. The ministers who met at the second session of the UN Forum on Forests called for new initiatives based on aspects such as the direct relationship between high levels of poverty and areas that suffer the highest rates of deforestation, such as the tropical forests.

The Brazilian congress may allow the reduction of the Amazon forest to 50% of its size for agriculture and pastures for livestock. All the wood is to be sold to international markets in the form of wood chips. The Amazon forest soil is very acidic and the region is prone to constant floods. At this time more than 160 000 km2 that have been deforested are abandoned and becoming deserts.

The South African forestry industry was initiated in the 19th Century with the specific intent of preserving its indigenous forests (a very small proportion of land, less than 1%, is covered by natural forest). In South Africa, afforestation is now a problem. According to the NGO Timberwatch, South Africa has roughly 1, 5 million ha of plantations which, commercial forestry has hastened to point out, is an insignificant 1% of the land. However, much of SA is semi-desert with only about 3,5 million ha of good arable land for which timber is in direct competition. Thus, these plantations could be taking up a possible 40% of potential farmland.

Afforestation is also a threat to indigenous flora and fauna. Commercial plantation forestry threatens montane grasslands (see article on ‘Haenertsburg Townlands’ in UGF May/June 2002 issue) which boast many endemic and threatened species – the best known being the Blue Swallow. To give some idea of the extent of biodiversity loss when forests are planted, consider one centre of endemism (which, thankfully, is not threatened by afforestation), the Maputoland-Pondoland Region of Endemism which boasts many rolling grasslands. In the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve alone, a mere 3 260 ha has more than 1 300 vascular plants. In the whole of the Kruger National Park, a reserve of some 2 000 000 ha there are 1 400 plant species, while in Great Britain (308 000 km2) there are only 1440 plant species. Afforestation of grasslands thus results in the loss of an irreplaceable wealth of plants which additionally have medicinal and other uses.

Exotic trees use a great deal more water than indigenous grasslands. It is thought that aliens remove about 3,3billion m3 of water from our rivers per year (7% of runoff). Studies in the Western Cape have shown that clearing alien plants from catchments can deliver additional water at only 13,6% of the cost associated with building a new dam scheme.

Farmers and rural communities considering planting timber in small grower projects could be unaware of the costs of the risks they face: fires, droughts and frost, sabotage and theft. Timber typically takes 8 to 28 years before farmers can see a return on investment. There are grave concerns about the rapid expansion of such commercial woodlots which are being encouraged by timber multi-nationals. These woodlots benefit some communities, but can result in serious erosion from land preparation, road making and drainage and, after harvesting, by denuding hillsides of vegetation. The benefit to the companies is that they do not need to buy land or bear farming risks.

South Africa has approximately 1,6million ha of delinquent ‘jungle’ plantations, mostly wattle – demonstrating the excessive invasive capacity of certain aliens. 

Tourists, both local and overseas, mostly don’t seek out felled or intact plantations; they come to enjoy the indigenous flora and fauna, and the natural beauty of the country.

Relations between forestry companies and conservation authorities are thawing, perhaps due to recent findings on internationally recognised ‘indicator species’ in plantations. Work on butterflies, dragonflies, and beetles has shown that these indicators live happily in plantations that are interspersed with natural areas. And while timber is a vital part of South Africa’s economy, Timberwatch asks whether South Africa should be exporting wood.

Most of the timber that is imported into South Africa is derived from natural forests, where harvesting is invariably not sustainable. There are alternatives. Most of the plantations in South Africa that produce construction timber are certified in terms of the criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC is an international initiative that has the support of organisations such as WWF and Greenpeace. Forestry companies that apply for FSC certification are subjected to stringent environmental audits, on an annual basis, in order to achieve and maintain this qualification. About 80% of sawn timber produced in South Africa is certified. There would be further marketing opportunities if the national and provincial governments in South Africa decided to use only certified products in government contracts. (Reference: ‘Timber – is it certified?’ Architechnology February 2002 issue.)

What makes paper environmentally friendly?
Since plantations and felling virgin forests both have huge impacts on the environment, the friendliest papers could be those that are recycled and wood-free, reports a new study by the American organisation Worldwatch Institute.

Global consumption of wood fibre for paper-making could be cut by more than 50% and achieved through a combination of trimming paper consumption in industrial countries, improving paper-making efficiency and expanding the use of recycled and non-wood materials, say Janet Abramovitz and Ashley Mattoon, co-authors of Paper Cuts: Recovering the Paper Landscape.

“We have the tools at hand to dramatically lessen the impact of paper on the world’s forests, as well as to reduce energy use, air and water pollution, and solid waste,” say the authors. “And as businesses like Bank of America, United Parcel Service and Proctor and Gamble have discovered, saving paper saves money too.”

Global paper use has grown more than six-fold since 1950. One fifth of all wood harvested in the world ends up in paper. It takes 2 to 3,5 tons of trees to make one ton of paper. Pulp and paper is the 5th largest industrial consumer of energy in the world, using as much power to produce a ton of product as the iron and steel industry. In some countries, including the United States, paper accounts for nearly 40% of all municipal solid waste.

“Making paper uses more water per ton than any other product in the world,” said Abramovitz. “It also produces high levels of air and water pollution – all to make a product that is usually used once and thrown away.”

Paper-makers can adopt proven and profitable methods of production that slash energy use and pollution. Eliminating chlorine bleaching, which is deadly to the environment and dangerous for workers, is an essential step towards producing cleaner paper and improving profitability. Scandinavia has cut chlorine from most of its production and has seen deadly dioxin levels fall significantly. In the last 25 years, many industrial countries have trimmed the amount of energy used to make a ton of paper by 20-50% (US 22%, Japan 50%) and water use by even more.

“Paper-makers can also incorporate more non-wood fibres, making use of a portion of the agricultural wastes that are currently burned in many places, while reducing chemical use in pulping and driving down demand for wood fibre,” says Mattoon. The authors propose doubling non-wood products like wheat straw as a fibre source and increasing the share of recycled paper for fibre, from today’s 38% to 60%.

Expanding the recycling of used paper creates enormous potential for environmental and economic benefits. Despite a tripling in the volume of paper recycled since 1975, some 57% of used paper is still not recycled. Because of soaring consumption, increases in the overall volume of paper waste have outpaced the growth in recycling. Each year the United States sends more paper to landfill than is consumed by all of China (the world’s second largest paper consumer). Beyond saving trees, making new paper from old takes a fraction of the energy and chemicals used in virgin paper production.

“Recycling makes use of the ‘urban forest’ – the huge supply of waste paper in cities, and eases pressures on landfills and incinerators,” say the authors. “Recycling and better product design can also help companies save money.”

Consumer products giant Proctor and Gamble shaved the amount of paper packaging per product by 24% in a short time. Since nearly half of all the world’s paper goes to packaging, such savings are significant. Shipping companies such as Airborne, UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service are now using 50-100% post-consumer waste paper for envelopes and boxes and are eliminating bleached paper. UPS, the largest such company, ships over 3billion packages per year.

Computers, fax machines and high speed printers and copiers make it possible to churn out vast quantities of paper. In the United States, the average office worker uses some 12,000 sheets of paper per year. Of the major grades of paper, printing and writing paper is both the most polluting and the fastest growing world-wide.

“While the paperless office predicted at the dawn of the computer age in the 1970s hasn’t materialised, there are clearly ways to make a less-paper office,” says Abramovitz. Bank of America, the largest bank in the country, reduced its paper consumption by 25% in just two years with on-line reports and forms, email, double-sided copying and lighter-weight papers. It also recycles 61% of its paper, saving about half a million dollars a year in waste hauling fees. Companies that use the Internet instead of paper for purchase orders, invoices, etc, can save $1 to $5 per page by eliminating paper and reducing labour costs and time.

There are gross inequities in access to paper. The United States, with less than 5% of the world’s population, consumes 30% of the world’s paper. Each year industrial countries use an average of 164 kg per person, while developing countries use just 18kg per person (United States 335 kg/person/year, Japan 249, Germany 192, Brazil 39, China 27, India 4). However, usage is growing rapidly in some developing couÿntries: between 1980 and 1997, consumption in Indonesia rose more than seven-fold, in China more than five-fold and more than four-fold in South Korea and Thailand. Some 80% of the world’s people consume less than 30-40 kg per person per year, the amount that a United Nations Environment Program report suggests is essential to meeting basic literacy and communiÿcation needs. (One kilogram of paper is roughly equal to two daily copies of the New York Times.)

“If industrial countries trimmed their paper use by 30%, an amount largely possible through good housekeeping alone, global consumption would fall and developing-country consumption could rise to meet basic needs without adding to the serious global environmental burden of paper,” say the authors.

Mondi goes 100% elemental chlorine free
Mondi Kraft, Richards Bay, is now producing 100% Elemental Chlorine Free Pulp (ECF). The production process at Mondi Kraft’s new US$26 million Oxygen Delignification Plant is continuing to improve, since it began in August last year.

The long anticipated oxygen delignification plant continues Mondi’s efforts to improve the mill’s environmental performance as well as giving Kraft a marketing edge. Although Mondi Kraft has been producing elemental chlorine free (ECF) pulp over the last few years, the mill is now able to provide 100% ECF pulp, with considerable environmental benefits. Project manager Rick van Selm commended main supplier Kvaerner for going the extra mile to ensure a smooth handover and commissioning phase.

The new system is designed for 1600 ADMT/24 hours of eucalyptus pulp and consists of a two-stage oxygen delignification system, two new wash presses and a separate system for oxidation of white liquor. The consumption of chemicals is reduced. After treatment through the new plant, the kappa number of pulp introduced to the bleach plant has been significantly decreased and as a result the consumption of bleaching chemicals has been reduced by an average of almost 50%. This in turn has reduced average AOX levels in final discharged effluent by a very significant margin and is currently well below the present European guideline requirement of <0,4kg/adt.

There are also other improvements. The investment in the oxygen delignification plant followed a series of laboratory and pilot scale trials over a two year period, which proved both the environmental benefits of the process and the reduction in chemical consumption; while still preserving the unique properties of Baycel bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp.

These results have now been proven through the full-scale plant operation. Additional benefits have been a reduction in raw water use at the mill, as well as improvements in the COD and colour levels of bleach plant effluent. According to Kraft Technical Manager Peter Leah, the new ECF pulp quality “...has been well received by customers and we now produce our white top kraft liner with a guaranteed ECF top sheet”.

Making amends
“Forestry – whether plantation forestry or the utilisation of natural forests – can have a major impact on biodiversity,” acknowledges Ricky Pott, environmental manager at Mondi Forests. To its credit, Mondi has done a lot to mitigate these impacts.

Mondi’s environmental flagship projects are its Natural Heritage Sites, multiple resource use projects with neighbouring communities, wetland projects and environmental education endeavours (many of the latter in partnership with the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA), explains Ricky Pott. Environmental education centres have been established at Twinstreams near Mtunzini, at Hlatikulu near Mooi River, Sabie (in partnership with the Deutsche Schule of Johannesburg) and the Khulanathi project in the shadows of the Prentjiesberg in the Eastern Cape.

Mondi is also teaming up with provincial conservation authorities and NGOs in biodiversity monitoring projects on Mondi land to conserve specific Red Data (endangered) species such as the gaboon adder, oribi, South Africa’s three crane species, the Cape parrot and the ‘Mondi’ minnow. Strong links have been forged with universities, museums and research institutes. One of Mondi’s main biodiversity initiatives is the registration of Natural Heritage Sites with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Mondi has almost 20000ha set aside for conservation under this programme with 21 sites registered and several in the pipeline. Over 100 Red Data species find refuge here.

Biodiversity is not just about individual species – ecosystems need to be kept intact too. In water-scarce South Africa, wetlands are critically important habitats (see Mondi Wetlands Project story below). Biodiversity is further protected by the international, market-driven Forestry Stewardship Council Certification system – an important requirement of which is environmental monitoring. Mondi keeps tabs on selected grasslands, wetlands, natural forests, game populations and water quality in 12 catchments. It is involved in the national crane and Cape parrot census. The five pairs of breeding wattled cranes on Mondi’s properties are reported on monthly.

Third-party assessors conduct a comprehensive audit of forestry practices in each of the so called forestry management units, and only issue a certificate of ‘good management’ if the standard of forestry and environmental protection passes their stringent requirements. South Africa has the largest area of Forestry Stewardship Certified (FSC) plantations of any country in the world and all Mondi’s producing plantations have been certified. “The value of FSC certification has been in increased export market share and having world class standards in forest management,” comments Pott.

Another important environmental initiative for Mondi is sharing resources with rural neighbours and other stakeholders on a sustainable basis. It allows controlled hunting, fishing, grazing, and the gathering of firewood, thatching grass and medicinal plants on its land. The projects are collectively known as multiple resource use and offer Mondi the opportunity of generating revenue, winning friends and improving the lot of rural communities. Projects include the following.
•            Concessions are granted to collect Boletus forest mushrooms, an industry worth nearly R20 million a year in exports to Europe. Many rural women are employed to collect these mushrooms.
•            Much of Mondi’s unplanted land is grassland. Where rural neighbours have cattle and inadequate grazing, conflict can be defused by allowing neighbours controlled access to the resource.
•            One of the most common causes of fires in eucalyptus plantations is from illegal honey hunting. This can be minimised by empowering rural neighbours to remove wild swarms using protective clothing, and training them in beekeeping.
•            Neighbours can gather reeds and medicinal plants through mutually agreed permit systems. Mondi works with the non-government Institute of Natural Resources on a project aimed at developing rural women in KwaZulu-Natal. Baskets and mats made of ‘ikwane’ sedge (see article on page 257) and sleeping mats of ‘incema’ are made and marketed by women.
•            Mondi has spent R35 million on the Khulanathi Woodlot Scheme since its launch in 1989. This could generate income of up to R25 million a year for KwaZulu-Natal Khulanathi growers. Khulanathi, meaning ‘Grow with us’ in Zulu, offers opportunities for disadvantaged individuals or community land-rights holders to grow commercial plantation trees with advice and assistance from Mondi; which supplies finance, management, technical expertise, a guaranteed market and fast-growing, high yielding superior plant stock. In return, Mondi gets a low risk source of wood fibre when the trees are harvested after eight years.

Mondi Wetlands Projects on target for World Summit
Mondi sponsors the award-winning NGO, the Mondi Wetlands Project, which recently launched two brand new programmes focusing on the sustainable use of wetlands.

Mondi Wetlands Project’s (MWP) Wise Use and Community Wetlands Management programmes are both ideal initiatives to showcase at the World Summit. The Wise Use Programme will bring a whole new constituency into wetlands conservation – commercial farmers and agricultural extension officers. “For the past five years we have used wetland rehabilitation as the vehicle to promote wetlands conservation,” says MWP manager, David Lindley. “We worked largely with forestry companies and government agencies. The programme was so successful it catalysed a national government rehabilitation programme – Working for Wetlands, a joint initiative by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, which will spend R30million a year on this work.”

“This frees MWP to concentrate on wise use. Farmers get financial benefits from using a part of their wetlands for crops or grazing, but if they retain the integrity of the wetlands they will reap the many free services that wetlands perform as a bonus. This will translate into more wetlands under proper management around South Africa. We are not suggesting that people should rush out and utilise every wetland,” Lindley cautions, “What we are saying is that if a wetland is already being used, landowners or communities must do it in such a way that the wetland is not wrecked.”

The Wise Use Programme will play a catalytic role in developing the capacity of governmental and non-governmental extension services to teach farmers to use their wetlands wisely. It will concentrate on both commercial agriculture and emerging farmers (the latter in partnership with the MWP’s Community Wetland Management Programme (see UGF Sep/Oct 2001 issue). The new Wise Use Programme national co-ordinator is Damian Walters who has studied both agriculture and nature conservation.

How does one use wetlands sustainably? “Most wetlands are used for grazing,” Walters replies. “The secret of wise use in this case is not to overgraze them since this leaves wetlands soils exposed and vulnerable to erosion. Other people use wetlands for planting crops. Here one should plant no more than one third of the wetland and choose crops which require minimum modification of the wetland. Choose water tolerant species such as rice, madumbes (sweet potatoes) or water tolerant pastures. Also, farmers should only plant in the least sensitive portions of the wetlands. The rule of thumb is to plant in the drier portions of a wetland.”

Wise use is also the crux of community wetlands management, says Lindley. Poor people do not have the luxury of being able to ignore wetlands on their land since people badly need wetland resources such as water, grazing, reeds or arable soils. Yet communities would get far more out of their wetlands if they managed them sustainably, Lindley asserts.

The MWP (previously the RWP – see below) has achieved many miracles over the past decade on a shoestring budget and with a handful of staff – it has assessed the condition of over 30300 ha of wetlands and rehabilitated many of these, trained hundreds of wetland managers and extension officers, changed the law and inspired central government to pledge millions for wetland conservation.

“We are recognised by our partner organisations as pioneering wetland conservation outside declared nature reserves,” says Lindley. “Our interventions take place nationally at both grassroots and political decision-making levels: we work with commercial farmers, agricultural and conservation extension services, historically disadvantaged rural communities, and key decision makers.”

MWP began its work in 1991 as the Rennies Wetlands Project in KwaZulu-Natal and when WESSA became involved in the management of the project, expanded its outreach to the whole of South Africa – a bold mov e considering it had only one staff member.

The project was divided into five-year phases. Phase One produced the Wetland Fix series of booklets advising on aspects of wetland rehabilitation and management. Phase Two initiated successful wetland rehabilitation projects in 21 areas around South Africa. MWP succeeded in changing the definition of a wetland in the New Water Act, and new alien plant regulations in the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act from a broad, indefensible definition to a strict, unambiguous regulatory definition.

MWP has also trained hundreds of people in wetlands management and forged wetlands networks – so that South Africa can boast a cohesiveness in wetland management achieved by few countries in the world. (Lindley learnt this at a recent international wetlands symposium in Australia.)

Funding was then secured from Mondi for Phase 3 – a third five-year phase, lasting until March 2006, in which the MWP is focussing on community wetland management and the wise use of wetlands by commercial farmers. MWP was recently honoured with the big prize at the 2002 Mail & Guardian Green Trust Awards – Overall Winner, Established Organisation.

“Our partner organisations and sponsors have also played a huge role in our success,” says national manager David Lindley. “They include national government, provincial conservation agencies – notably Mpumalanga Parks Board, Free State Nature Conservation and KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, NGOs such as the Crane Working Group, the University of Natal, the forestry industry and the volunteers from all walks of life. We have received administrative support from the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF-SA) and WESSA, and been bankrolled by Rennies and South African Breweries (they supported us for 10 years) and now by Mondi and the Mazda Wildlife Fund.”

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TOURISM

What is best practice ecotourism?
2002 has been declared by the United Nations, the International Year of Ecotourism. The WSSD itself will serve as a massive ecotourism opportunity as delegates enjoy pre- and post-Summit tours. Sustainable ecotourism can conserve wilderness and benefit communities, but too many ventures billed as ‘ecotourism’ destroy wild places and exploit people.

Tourism could be the world’s largest industry – in 2000, it generated an estimated $3,6 trillion in economic activity and accounted for one in every 12 jobs worldwide. Tourism is especially important in the developing world – it is the only economic area where developing countries consistently run a trade surplus. But the industry’s rapid growth has placed a heavy burden on local economies, cultures and environments. Uncontrolled tourism development is stressing many of the planet’s most sensitive locations, reports the American organisation Worldwatch Institute.

What would be the most sustainable way of establishing an ecotourism destination? Perhaps we should look no further than the proposed National Park in the Pondoland region of the former Transkei which has been announced by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Valli Moosa. It could bring much-needed development to one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, in such a way that the area’s natural riches are conserved and used sustainably.

The proposed park extends from the north bank of the M’Zimvubu River at Port St John’s to the south bank of the Umtamvuna River adjacent to the Wild Coast Casino near Port Edward. Within the proposed area are a provincial nature reserve (Mkambati Nature Reserve), numerous indigenous forests under the control of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), extensive grazing areas under the control of the Quwakeni Regional Authority, agricultural lands, also under the control of the Quwakeni local authority and local chiefs, and the coastline, inter-tidal zone and deep sea, under control of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT).

Biogeographically, the proposed Pondoland Park falls into one of seven regions of floral endemism in South Africa, namely the Maputoland-Pondoland Region of Endemism. The diversity is mind-boggling: in one area merely 3 260ha in extent, more than 1300 vascular plants have been recorded.

“We had hoped to proclaim the park by 31 March this year,” says Keith Cooper, veteran conservationist, formerly with the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) but now working full time on the ‘Pondo Park project’. “We have run into some turf battles between different levels of government over ‘ownership’ of the proposed park,” he says, but ever optimistic, believes it can be resolved fairly simply.

“Because of the diverse land uses, the park could be run as a UNESCO biosphere reserve and the area has potential as a World Heritage site,” Cooper explains. “The World Heritage Convention Act (49 of 1999) makes provision for an ‘authority’ to be established to administer such unique sites. Members of the Pondoland Park Authority could include representatives of all relevant stakeholders such as DWAF, DEAT, the Eastern Cape Government, Land Affairs, Quwakeni Local Authority and strong representation from local communities living in the area. A similar park authority has been successfully established for the Greater St Lucia Wetlands park.”

The proposed Pondoland Park is unique since it combines formally protected areas with communal land still in good condition. “The area has minimal potential for agriculture or industrial development,” Cooper points out. “Instead it has amazing scenery, biodiversity and cultural value. We want to develop this park in such a way that local people are respected and truly benefit.” says Cooper. Within the area researchers have identified as worthy of national park status, there are seven tribal authorities. Each authority has selected two representatives to be on a community forum called the Pondoland Park Forum. This forum is fully involved in negotiations and looking forward to helping run the park.

One project in the ‘Pondo Park’ area that sets a shining example of community-run ecotourism is the Pondo Community Resource Optimisation Project (Pondo CROP) Amadiba Adventures horse trails initiative. Community guides take tourists on horse trails, similar to Basotho pony treks, except that Pondo trails run along the coast. Successful community-based ecotourism ventures are also found in the ‘prototype’ Greater St Lucia area in the shape of Kosi Bay’s community-run camps.

Another legitimate community-run ecotourism project is the Makuleke initiative in Limpopo Province. The Makuleke won a land claim to 24000ha of the Kruger National Park. This is managed as a contractual park with South African National Parks (SANP) and an upmarket lodge is being developed in partnership with a private developer. The lodge will employ 30 people and pay a monthly lease to the Makuleke and a monthly levy to a community development fund. In the Makuleke village just outside Kruger the tribe has built a museum and guest house to provide affordable accommodation. It is located next to the local chief’s kraal and unlike some of the artificial ‘cultural villages’ around the country, this one will offer an authentic view of village life.

There are also community-based ecotourism ventures in the Drakensberg, notably the Mnweni Valley (see article on page 181) and a facility at Matatiele in the North Eastern Cape. The latter is a project of the Group for Environmental Monitoring, the Environmental and Development Agency Trust and the Ukahlamba Tourism Association. Together they have created a central Matatiele community-based tourism centre for liaison with stakeholders and tourists. The Matatiele area is mountainous, scenic and ideal for hiking. Trails and a site for the Masakala guest-house have been identified. Communities are currently networking with tour operators and various government departments.

The questions of sustainability and equity
The Makuleke, Mnweni, Kosi, Pondo and Matatiele community initiatives are exactly the kind of destinations that should be offered to the delegates at the WSSD. As Tanya Abrahamse chairperson of the Tourism Advisory Council (which briefs the Johannesburg World Summit Company (Jrowsco)) says, “Tourism is dependent on a good environment. Through the WSSD we are going to attract a thinking tourist who will want to see sustainability in practice. We want to display a uniquely African experience. We are pushing for black owned or managed companies to get exposure during the WSSD, and to promote emerging entrepreneurs and fast track skills development.”

Ceo of SA Tourism, South Africa’s official tourism marketing body Cheryl Carolus adds, “We should use the WSSD to showcase best practice in tourism. We should include previously excluded communities.” All well and good, but the ‘dinkum’ community-based ventures just mentioned were not on the Jowsco website when we last looked. Certainly, many government facilities, such as SANParks and provincial reserves, which are on the website, have gone a long way towards employment equity and providing benefits for neighbouring communities, but the tourism industry is still overwhelmingly white and offers little more to impoverished communities than menial jobs. So delegates will see our first steps towards equity in ecotourism, but by no means the best we can do.

In South Africa, the key concerns around sustainable tourism are the environmental and social ethics of practitioners. For example, there is a lot of money in tourism (it’s South Africa’s third biggest forex earner) but how big is the ‘trickle down’ effect and does it make conservation attractive enough to inspire communities to conserve wild places?

“Tourism is the only economic sector where developing countries consistently run a trade surplus,” says Worldwatch researcher Lisa Mastny, author of ‘Traveling Light: New Paths for International Tourism.’ “It’s especially significant in poorer countries that have few other options: for the world’s 49 so-called least developed countries, tourism is the second largest source of foreign exchange after oil.”

Even in the best of times, the consequences of tourism’s rapid growth have not always been positive. On average, as much as 50% of tourism earnings ultimately ‘leak’ out of the developing world – in the form of profits earned by foreign-owned businesses, promotional spending abroad, or payments for imported goods and labour.

Killing or conserving the golden goose?
Another danger is that tourism is threatening the very beautiful places – mountaintops, coastlines or remote jungles – and the cultures it markets, in the first place. South Africa should be careful of this – for example in the greater St Lucia Wetland Park, the biggest mistake would be to try and turn it into another Knysna, where the estuary is beseiged by unscrupulous development.

“Tourism does not have to have such negative impacts,” Mastny argues. “Many governments and businesses, local communities, and tourists themselves are already paying more attention to the social, cultural, and environmental impacts of their activities.” Such changes can save money as well. Between 1988 and 1995, for example, Inter-Continental Hotels reduced its overall energy costs by 27%, saving $3,7 million in 1995 alone. The Green Hotels Association reports that hotels that have adopted such conservation measures and green practices have been better able to weather the revenue loss, falling occupancies and higher energy costs in the aftermath of the September attacks (see the grading performance box on page 211).

Certainly, if everyone adopted Western style travel it would consume 25 planets’ worth of resources. Recognising that wise resource use should underpin any ecotourism venture, Wilderness Safaris greened its camps long before it was fashionable. Wilderness Safaris’ ceo Colin Bell says, “We have to juggle comfort with an authentic bush experience. Most of our camps are tented or under thatch and are small to minimise impact. At considerable cost to ourselves we have employed full-time environmentalists, installed solar power, devised safe sewage disposal systems and we fly rubbish out of our camps to nearby towns.”

In South Africa, Sabi Sabi game reserve adjacent to Kruger has used earth-friendly lodge management for years, harnessing wetlands to treat sewage, recycling waste and recently it launched its ‘Earth Lodge’ which has been built from local, natural materials in a way that minimises pollution and disturbance. “It’s a R60 million investment, which included buying new land, but we hope it sets a precedent in the industry,” says md Patrick Shorten.

The ecotourism sector has been growing even faster than the tourism industry as a whole (20% vs 7%). But Mastny cautions that some businesses are ‘greenwashing’ their operations, slapping on the ecotourism label without actually changing their practices. According to DEAT, tourism expenditure grew 8% from 1992 to 2 000 and the number of jobs in tourism grew by 7% for the same period. Even though tourism has great potential for generating wealth, the majority of people in South Africa have not felt its benefits, says Minister Moosa. His department will thus put R66 million into growing small black business through its Tourism Enterprise Programme. Since 1999 DEAT has spent more than R260million in funding over 150 community-based tourism projects. Craft industries alone are estimated to be worth more than R1,8 billion a year and employ 1,3 million people.

Community partnerships
However, it is not always possible to offer world class travel experience via a community-based operation since disadvantaged people may not have the skills, capital or networks to develop their products. This is where the kind of partnerships struck up by companies like Wilderness Safaris and CC Africa have relevance. Bell’s Wilderness Safaris owns camps in government concessions throughout Africa and runs specialist ecotours, and he agrees that communities that border on wildlife areas have undeniable rights. “Wherever we can, we have involved them in our businesses. Bringing a potential poacher into the income flow turns him into a good gamekeeper. A portion of each guest’s fare goes into the Wilderness Safaris Wildlife Trust used for environmental research or empowering communities. In some cases communities have a shareholding in our camps.”

CC Africa has been working in ecotourism for 30 years. By trial and error it has developed various ways of working with local communities to ensure that they benefit from the business. One of the earliest ideas was the ‘Londolozi model’ in which emerging businessmen such as mechanics, vegetable growers or guides were recruited from neighbouring villages to enter into business partnerships with the Londolozi lodge (in the exclusive Sabi Sands private reserve bordering on Kruger National Park).

Then the company bought 17000ha of derelict cattle lands in KwaZulu-Natal and established the Phinda Resource Reserve, and it had to enter into a whole new relationship with neighbouring communities if the game lodge was going to survive.

Phinda means ‘the return’ and CC Africa certainly did return the land to its former wild state with large game relocation and veld management programmes. After 10 years it finally began earning decent returns and proved that while returns from cattle farming were R150 per ha per annum, ecotourism and conservation initiatives on the same land earned R1 500 per ha/annum. Whilst cattle farming created 60 jobs, ecotourism currently employs 300 people on the same area of land.

CC Africa believes it has proven that in some marginal rainfall areas of Africa, conservation offers greater returns than conventional farming. The capital required for ecotourism ventures is, however, often much higher than agriculture and this prevents most communities from raising it themselves – hence the promotion of partnerships. The lodges gain goods and services and also loyalty from their neighbours. Group environmental manager Les Carisle, while manager at Phinda, pointed out how many animals were poached from the neighbouring provincial reserves, yet Phinda suffered no losses.

At Phinda, local communities also accrued returns through the Phinda Community Development Trust. The local community gained the Mduku clinic, 40 classrooms and teachers’ cottages. Small scale businesses were set up including a charcoal venture that uses timber from bush clearing, and local crafts that are sold in the lodge shops. Bursaries are awarded to many students each year from the villages surrounding Phinda, Ngala (also near Kruger) and Londolozi.

CC Africa has taken its development ideas into other countries and adapted them to local needs and conditions. In Tanzania a clinic is being built next to Klein’s Camp. A clinic is being upgraded in Zanzibar. An Aids orphanage has been planned near Matetsi in Zimbabwe. In Kenya and Tanzania, where CC operates on Maasai land, local communities are represented on the management team at the lodge and some are shareholders in the business. For example, at CC Africa’s Klein’s Camp in Tanzania the Maasai sit at the boardroom table with the company. They get a percentage of turnover – so during good tourism times rentals are high and during bad, they are low. This gives them a real incentive to facilitate tourism.

And for the poorest of the poor in the lean years, there’s always the Africa Foundation which funds ongoing community projects in all regions where CC Africa operates. Maverick conservationist Dave Varty, founder of CC Africa and now involved with the Africa Foundation, says there is a crying need for hospitality training so that disadvantaged communities can have a meaningful stake in ecotourism projects. The Africa Foundation transfers wealth and skills from international donors to African initiatives. “Half of humanity lives under the poverty line,” says Varty. “This is not sustainable. No wonder there is so much crime.”

What’s the end game?
Social benefits are vitally important but they should not be the only goal of sustainable ecotourism. Indeed, the primary goal (though it’s become unfashionable to say so) should be to conserve ecosystems. In fact, Varty would say its aim should be to increase wilderness. “My big question is what contribution does ecotourism make to advancing green frontiers?” asks Varty “There is so little wilderness left that we have a responsibility to add to it. So while Phinda may not make as much money as other lodges, its conservation value is priceless. I believe that in the future, money will not be a rare commodity but conservation land will.”

“After 30 years in ecotourism, I have realised that pure wilderness is far more valuable than developed land and people may be prepared to pay a premium for it,” Varty asserts. “Beyond all the machinations of the financial markets, wilderness has a masterplan which is more enduring than our puny human efforts. The argument of ‘if it pays, it stays’ will no longer be valid in the next millennium. The world is in a bad state; I believe that wealthy people will simply buy land and leave it alone. This is already being done by Ted Turner and Howard (son of Warren) Buffett. And in South Africa ‘eco-barons’ Carl Desantis, an American millionaire, who recently spent US$13 million (R104 million) to buy 16 000 ha near Grahamstown, fencing, stocking and building Kwandwe lodge and Adrian Gardiner, who set up the now successful Shamwari game reserve in the Eastern Cape 10 years ago, are disciples of the restoration age. How many yachts can you ski behind anyway? Africa leads the world in land restoration. We hope others follow suite.”

Who gets the money?
Information from Statistics South Africa, the official government information service, indicates that of the more than one million foreign tourists visiting SA every year, over 30% (349000 visitors) come from the UK, followed by Germany with 20% (210000) and the US with 16% (175000). Around 85% visit SA on holiday and less than 10% travel on business. Of these, the US visitors spend the most money on their South African trip – around R35 000 per person – though less than half of this is actually spent inside the country. Travellers are spending more than half their total costs on airfares, prepaid package tours and travel agents’ commissions, all paid for outside of SA.

Peace and ecotourism prosperity
The Makuleke, the Mnweni and the Matatiele developments all stand to benefit from the transfrontier or ‘peace parks’ initiative being developed in southern Africa. These are conservation areas which straddle a number of international boundaries. Examples include the Drakensberg-Maloti area (Lesotho and South Africa – benefiting the Mnweni and Matatiele projects), the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Botswana and South Africa) and the Richtersveld / Ai-Ais TFCA (South Africa and Namibia), the Limpopo / Shashe TFCA (South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe) and the Gaza / Kruger / Gonarezhou Park (South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe – benefiting the Makuleke). The Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) were the brainchild of the Peace Parks Foundation but have been adopted by DEAT and aim to promote peace and sustainable development for the rural poor. International agreements have been put in place for five parks. Transfrontier parks promise to bring another 60 million hectares of land under conservation in southern Africa.

Grading performance and environmental responsibility
The Summit poses both a huge opportunity and a huge challenge to the hospitality industry. The industry did say it would play fair and clean up its act. Last year the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) and its members gave an undertaking to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism that it would not double its rates and cheat the visitors.

In the interim, however, delegates are being forced to make 10-day block bookings which is unfair to small NGOs, especially those who can only afford a few days at the Summit, and those working directly with poor people – which is what the Summit is meant to be all about.

The good news from an environmental perspective is that the Summit is acting as a catalyst for re-starting tourism grading by means of the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA). It has developed a grading scheme based on the internationally recognised star-grading scheme and vetted in over 600 establishments so far. The aim of the grading council is a mechanism which allows clients to compare establishments, and protest, based on objective criteria. Standards can also be used as a marketing tool for selling South Africa. The Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Education and Training Authority (Theta) will assist with service standards training.

This has also provided a platform for the launching of Fedhasa’s Imvelo (a Zulu word loosely meaning ‘nature’) Awards for best practice. The winners will soon be announced in areas ranging from community involvement, air quality and waste management to energy and water conservation. The 53 year old association (which serves the interests of the hospitality industry representing hotels, guest houses, suppliers and taverners) has launched this responsible tourism initiative in association with the International Hotel and Restaurant Association, says executive director of Fedhasa, Willem Fick.

But why should the hospitality industry give a hoot about the environment? “We believe that tour operators will begin boycotting establishments which do not pursue best practice guidelines,” says Fick. Environmental guidelines for the hospitality sector were prepared by a working group appointed by Jowsco and consisting of representation from Southern Sun, Intercontinental, Fedhasa, Jowsco and certain metro councils in Gauteng.

The guidelines are voluntary, in line with the World Tourism Organisation’s code of ethics – based on broad ISO 14001 best practice and the International Hoteliers Environmental Initiative. The guidelines also conform to the request from DEAT that certain guidelines be developed in tandem with the government’s own document on ‘Responsible Tourism Development Guidelines for the South African Tourism Industry’. The guidelines are intended to provide the stakeholders in the hospitality industry with practical advice and assistance to protect and enhance the environment in which they operate.

“Given the fact that the South African Tourism generic marketing campaign includes our wildlife and cultural diversity, the hospitality industry has to implement Environmental Management Programmes,” says Fick.

The Fedhasa guidelines include:
•            ensuring quality air in public areas through air flow and purification
•            limiting or reducing emissions into the air (by cleaning air filters and exhaust systems)
•            involving the local community and encouraging them to develop their own programmes
•            providing resources and/or funds for local community health and environmental education
•            supporting the local community through the use and/or promotion of their products

monitoring all energy usage
•            investigation into the environmental practices of suppliers
•            use of natural and recyclable materials
•            separating waste such as cans, glass and paper 
•            implementing water saving programmes

CC Africa has also developed an ecotourism auditing programme. “Our mission is to demonstrate that a financially sound ecotourism business can contribute to conservation and communities,” says Les Carlisle, group environmental manager. Staff have formed the voluntary ‘Green Team’ which supports the lodge managers in monitoring impacts and identifying solutions for resource management, and to enhance guest experience and community benefits. To determine current performance at each lodge, the first step is an ecotourism audit consisting of 21 key questions. Three sets of checklists (addressing resources, guests and communities) are then completed, prioritising areas of action.

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WASTE MANAGEMENT

Clean-ups involving community commitment
Professor Robert Swan, OBE, is the first person in history to have walked to both the North and South Poles. Speaking at the presentation of the Green Trust Awards in June, Swan described his polar journeys with intensity and humour. He is in South Africa to accompany Earthship Mission Possible on its travels around the country and to deliver a keynote address at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.

At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, Swan was charged by the United Nations to commit to a positive environmental action, to inspire young people, industry and business, and to report back to the World Summit in 10 years time.

In the intervening years, working against considerable odds and at enormous cost, Swan accomplished the mission he set himself. Mission Antarctica was conceived to remove more than 1 000 tons of waste from the Russian base at Bellingshausen on the Antarctic Peninsula. With a team of 35young people from 25 nations, and the support of a joint British and Russian clean-up crew, the beach at Bellingshausen has been cleared. Penguins, seals and birds have returned to this landing ground. The waste, mostly scrap metal, was transported to Montevideo in Uruguay, South America, to be recycled.

Mission Antarctica demonstrated that, with simple tools, a willingness to work together and, above all, a determination to overcome the problems encountered, it is possible to succeed. There remains a lot of work to be done in cleaning up Antarctica. In spite of the Antarctic Treaty, which behoves each country operating there to clean up its own rubbish, this requirement seems too often to be ignored. In the years ahead, Mission Antarctica aims to continue its work.

To translate the Bellingshausen clean-up and the work of Mission Antarctica into a powerful ‘Think Global – Act Local’ message to deliver to the World Summit in Johannesburg, Mission Antarctica linked up with loveLife – South Africa’s youth programme that is fighting the spread of HIV/Aids.

Six loveLife groundbreakers, selected as ambassadors for the programme and for South Africa’s youth, travelled to Antarctica earlier this year where they joined Swan, sailing on the Mission Antarctica yacht – 2041 – and visited the now cleared Bellingshausen site. Having returned to Cape Town, 2041 was loaded onto a custom-built trailer – to become Earthship Mission Possible – and is travelling over 12000 km across the country in a nationwide roadshow, attending loveLife Games in different centres along the way.

Joburg Unite
In preparing Johannesburg to welcome some 60 000 guests expected to attend the World Summit, the mayor of Johannesburg, Councillor Amos Masondo, recently announced a ‘Green Alert’ when the City of Johannesburg launched its Joburg Unite campaign.

Joburg Unite brings together the City’s utilities, agencies and departments in support of the Gauteng provincial government’s Clean and Green campaign – Bontle ke Botho: Cleanest Town, Cleanest Ward and Cleanest School Competition. It also aims to galvanise all Johannesburg’s residents as well as community groups, non-government organisations, businesses, churches, professional groups, schools, shopping centres and unions, into working together with the City’s service agencies to clean up the entire metropolitan area.

The City is already active in repairing and upgrading roads, greening open spaces, cleaning sewerage systems and strengthening police action to prevent illegal littering and dumping. Joburg Unite has designated August 3rd as ‘Joburg Clean-up Day’, when residents are called upon to clean up their neighbourhoods, in co-operation with the City, so that Johannesburg presents a clean and tidy environment for the World Summit.

In actioning the Joburg Unite campaign, the City has seized the opportunity that Johannesburg’s hosting of this World Summit presents to raise awareness among all citizens of the values of a clean and healthy environment and to promote a spirit of co-operation in Johannesburg in support of these values. While the aim of this campaign is surely laudable, some of the projects prioritised by the City seem rather ambitious – such as cleaning our rivers and streams to ensure clean water for all. This is an ongoing challenge, not a quick-fix job, as is the management and maintenance of the Johannesburg environment. It will require continuing vigilance and commitment from the City authorities and the city’s residents long after the Summit has been and gone.

What happens to the collected cans?
We know that the recovery company Collect-a-Can does an excellent job of collecting cans through the empowerment of previously unemployed local people – but how are the cans recycled after collection?

On arrival at various Collect-a-Can branches, the cans are weighed and separated: steel goes into one pile and aluminium into another. The cans are then crushed into bales. The bales of steel cans are then sold to the steel mills, where they are melted without pre-treatment to form prime recycled steel (even though they contain some tinplate, this is thought to be negligible). Food tins are made the same way as beverage cans but only 10% of food cans sold in South Africa are recovered. Collect-a-Can does not focus on food cans because their contribution to litter is minimal. They are, however, a valuable resource, so consumers should still make an effort to recycle them.

The collected aluminium tins are sold to an aluminium commodity broker who exports them. Aluminium cans are no longer manufactured (or recycled) in South Africa and they account for only about 3% of all beverage cans sold.

Collect-a-Can also recycles tinplate scrap off-cuts. Tin bearing industrial scrap is recovered from the beverage can manufacturer Nampak Bevcan and from Iscor. The tinplate is electrochemically stripped off the steel at Collect-a-Can’s de-tinning plant in Vanderbijlpark – the largest operation of its kind in the southern hemisphere. This results in two high quality products: tin ingots and steel scrap. The tin is sold for plating onto virgin steel to make new tinplate. The steel is finally sold to steel mills.

Collect-a-Can was established by Iscor, Nampak (Metal Box) and Crown Cork in 1993 with the aim of addressing the cradle-to-grave aspects of the steel beverage can. Collect-a-Can is a recovery as opposed to a profit-driven company whose shareholders currently are Iscor (60%) the tinplate producer, and Crown Nampak (40%) the steel beverage can manufacturer. Collect-a-Can’s mission is to reduce the subsidy it receives from its shareholders by cost-effectively recovering used steel beverage cans in southern Africa.

The company has five strategically positioned branches in South Africa; three in Gauteng – in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Vanderbijlpark and one each in Cape Town and in Durban. In neighbouring states, the company has branches in Gaborone in Botswana, Windhoek in Namibia and Harare in Zimbabwe. It also has agencies in Mozambique and Swaziland.

Additionally, the company has a network of entrepreneurs in some 120towns in South Africa, specifically in those areas not covered by its branches. These entrepreneurs are either scrap metal merchants or multi-material recyclers. They purchase cans from collectors in their areas, bale them, then transport and sell them to Collect-a-Can.

Collect-a-Can employs distinctive pricing policies – paying more than the average market related price; provides a one-stop facility – accepting used beverage as well as aerosol, food, oil and paint cans; empowers entrepreneurs and local communities to recover cans; and monitors all its operations on an on-going basis.

Used beverage can collectors comprise primarily the unemployed in disadvantaged communities, small business entrepreneurs, schools, charities and religious groups. They recover cans from townships, roadside litter, dumpsites, some landfill sites, taverns, shebeens, parks, sports and special events.

In many cases collectors form their own collection networks and deliver their cans directly to one of the company’s branches, for which they receive an above market related price. In other cases where collectors do not have their own transport, they link-up with entrepreneurs with cars.

The bulk of post consumer beverage cans are routed through Collect-a-Can. The company’s recovery rate has grown from a modest 18 % in 1992/93 to an all-time high of 63,7 % in its fiscal year which ended in June 2001.  Its benefits have included:
•            Job creation. The company’s collector base has grown from a modest 1500 in 1993 to 37 700 currently. Collectors earn, depending on effort, R 200 – R 15 000 per month. Since 1993 Collect-a-Can has paid out in excess of R 100 million for the purchase of steel used beverage cans from its collectors.
•            Litter abatement. The contribution of steel used beverage cans to litter in southern Africa has declined from 8% to less than 1 % over the past six years.
•            Pollution reduction. Beverage can recovery preserves resources and reduces energy.
•            Landfill reduction. With more than 6 out of every 10 discarded steel used beverage cans being recovered, inorganic waste filling of landfills is reduced.

Waste buy-back centres
Another aspect of Pikitup’s sustainable waste management drive has seen the set up of five waste buy-back centres, which have been established as joint ventures between Pikitup, a number of recycling partners – such as Mondi Recycling, Collect-a-Can, the Glass Recycling Association, The Plastics Federation and Sappi – and local entrepreneurs. The satellite buy-back centres established to date in Dobsonville, Sandton, Yeoville, Alexandra and Robertville have created about 120 informal jobs for waste reclaimers who deliver waste that they have collected to the buy-back centres.

The recycling partners equip the centres to service their needs – for collection and sorting of glass, plastics, paper, cans, aluminium and other such recyclable materials – and have trained local entrepreneurs to manage the centres as business units. Reclaimers sell their collected waste to the centres and are paid in terms of the ruling price per material. Items are then sorted at the buy-back centres for collection by the recycling agencies, which have undertaken to purchase all recyclable materials from the centres. On average, the five established centres together collect about 400tonnes of waste a month for recycling.

Pikitup facilitates the set up of the buy-back centres by identifying suitable land, arranging the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) required, providing specialist waste management advice and bringing together the potential partners_. Once the partnerships are in place, the respective business managers and the recycling partners manage the centres jointly.

The Dobsonville Buy-Back Centre in Soweto will be showcased during the Summit. This small business enterprise is run by local entrepreneur Louis Molefi who employs 12 people on a full-time basis. The centre has been in operation for close to three years. Waste collectors work within a 5km radius of the centre and are paid, by weight, for the recyclable waste material that they deliver. Over 200tonnes of recyclable waste are collected and sorted at the Dobsonville Buy-Back Centre monthly.

Buy-back centres can play a significant role in reducing the waste stream by channelling collected waste materials into the recycling process and so diverting waste from landfill. Pikitup makes the point that South African ingenuity and creativity continue to reveal new opportunities for recycling of waste materials, but the company emphasises that operations such as the buy-back centres must be seen as only part of an integrated approach to waste recycling and overall waste management.

Small waste buy-back businesses face constraints in that they need to comply with the requirements of the EIA regulations governing the establishment of waste handling facilities and there is also a need to assess the impact of the buy-back centres on the communities and the environments in which they operate. Such requirements have in some instances delayed further buy-back centres being established. However, Pikitup has plans in place for additional centres to be set up within the next 18months.

Cape Town’s Waste Wise campaign
In April the City of Cape Town launched its Waste Wise campaign for a cleaner Cape Town. The programme encompasses a number of initiatives directed at increasing awareness among residential communities, commerce and industry, of the problems associated with waste, and motivating waste reduction across the city.

In Cape Town in 2001, 1,5 million tonnes of waste was disposed of, 6% more than in the previous year, and enough to fill a continuous line of waste collection trucks from Cape Town to Johannesburg – that is bumper to bumper over some 1600km.

Why do we have to deal with so much waste? This is the question that led to the City’s current campaign, which is supported by a R40 million investment from the City Council. This sum is less than a quarter of the R135 million that the City spends annually on picking up litter – a cost that is additional to that of regular waste collection and disposal services and does not include the costs arising from illegal dumping or clearing stormwater drains of plastic bags and other debris.

The campaign aims to involve all stakeholders, encouraging everyone to work together to clean up the city and to keep it clean. Different aspects of the programme range from stronger enforcement of waste regulating by-laws, to an education and publicity programme, the institution of waste minimisation clubs in key sectors of commerce and industry, a focus on opportunities for waste reduction in institutional facilities such as hospitals and defence force premises, a drive to establish major public events as ‘zero-litter events’, and continuing operational clean-ups.

These measures are not new but build on existing local government, non-government and private sector structures and programmes, such as The Fairest Cape Association, the schools’ waste collection and recycling programmes and the City’s established network of community co-ordinators working on waste management. The intention is to increase the reach of waste reduction projects and to extend community involvement and commitment to a clean city.

Law enforcement
A special task team of law enforcement officers has been formed to take on specific responsibility for monitoring contravention of waste by-laws and to deal with offences.

With changes in the metropolitan government structure, unwieldy variations in by-laws from the six former municipalities of Cape Town have been revised to a common metropolitan framework, which will simplify enforcement. Fines for offences have been increased and are even higher for second-time offenders – up to R20 000 in cases of illegal dumping. Provision is also made through the Waste Wise programme for more effective integration between the solid waste department and other municipal departments, including the municipal police service.

There are over 2 000 illegal waste dumps in the City of Cape Town. These have been identified using a GIS mapping programme and rated in terms of urgency for clearing. The City has targeted each dump by priority, implementing clean-ups and connecting with the respective community to explain the problems of illegal dumping, how it can be prevented and who to contact when it is observed. Law enforcement continues to monitor the cleared areas in partnership with the local community.

Education and publicity
Strategies have been developed to educate different sectors within the city – residential communities, schools, business and industry, institutions and the City of Cape Town itself – on issues of illegal dumping and waste management. An extensive awareness programme is being run via local radio stations and community newspapers, directed mainly at residential communities. Other media such as industrial theatre and an interactive puppet show are also being used to convey the Waste Wise message. In addition, the City is taking advantage of various special events staged in Cape Town to raise awareness of integrated waste management practices.

Waste minimisation clubs
The establishment of Waste Minimisation Clubs of Cape Town, in the commercial and industrial sectors, forms a major thrust of the Waste Wise programme. Industry alone accounts for about one third of total waste in the city. Six clubs have been established: at the civic centre; in the meat processing industry; in the vehicle servicing and repair sector; in the plastics industry; in the Atlantis industrial area; and at the Blue Route shopping mall. In addition, and with a view to establishing a waste minimisation club in the construction industry, an initiative has been launched to reduce construction and demolition waste and the practice of dumping it.

The civic centre is participating in the programme because, as Councillor Erleigh, executive councillor for Trading Services in the City Council says, “It is essential for us to get our own house in order and to demonstrate what can be achieved by operating a waste minimisation club.”

The concept of waste minimisation clubs is drawn from international and national experience. It originated in The Netherlands in the 1990s and has spread to other countries, including Britain where there are now more than 80 such clubs and savings reportedly amount to millions of pounds a year. In South Africa waste minimisation clubs were first established in KwaZulu-Natal and there are two currently operating successfully in Cape Town, outside of the Waste Wise programme.

The clubs operate on the basis that groups of companies, usually in the same sector of commerce or industry, or in the same geographic area, meet together as club members to share ways of reducing waste, increasing efficiencies and saving costs. Membership fees spread the costs of specialist consultants and bring to the members the benefits of expertise and shared experience. At the same time, the cost of membership commits the participating companies to the clubs and in a broader sense to the city and the environment. While the primary motivation is generally bottom-line savings, members become more environmentally and socially responsible, as well as more economically responsible.

Waste minimisation deals not only with reducing waste disposal to landfill, but also with eliminating wastage of resources such as energy, water and raw materials. “Unnecessary or inefficient consumption of resources is enormously wasteful,” says Erleigh. “It’s important for us to get beyond the recycling of waste materials, to reduce waste at source. We need to attend to the causes of waste and not just modify the symptoms.”

Club operations
The set up of Waste Minimisation Clubs of Cape Town is being subsidised by the City through the Waste Wise programme. As consultants, the BECO Institute for Sustainable Business and EnviroSense are facilitating the running of the clubs. Over time, the objective is to see the clubs functioning independently. They will set up their own bank accounts, manage their meetings and can call on the consultants if the need arises.

Once the clubs have been formed, the first step is to undertake a quick scan of each member’s usage of resources and raw materials and their waste streams. Typically a process flow diagram is prepared and resource consumption and waste output are measured at the different stages of that process and recorded on worksheets prepared by the consultants. The assessments are being done by university and technikon students, in chemical engineering, materials engineering or similar, working under the guidance of the consultants.

The walk-through quick-scan assessment of the individual member’s facilities serves to identify where there are opportunities for reducing waste and saving costs. Possible actions are then brainestormed with the consultants and all club members and a list of options is developed. Recommendations may deal with reducing or designing out wasteful raw material and other input costs; improving efficiencies in resourice consumption; or reducing waste treatment and disposal costs. While each company is different and will implement different options to suit its processes and priorities, club members learn from each other, finding out what works and what doesn’t.

Club members, usually including environmental, health and safety managers, engineers and technical staff, meet on a regular basis (typically every two months) to review progress and share ideas. The concept of the club introduces a degree of peer pressure, motivating members to demonstrate progress and, at the same time, they are encouraged by recognition from their peers for their achievements.

Blue Route Mall
An outline of work in progress at The Blue Route Mall waste minimisation club presents an example of the process followed.

All retailers in the mall, including some of the leading chain stores, were invited to join the club. Those that joined include restaurants, supermarkets, a clothing retailer, a pharmacy-health store and a bookshop. In addition, the property management company responsible for the public areas in the mall has become a club member.

A baseline study has been completed for the mall management, covering energy and water consumption and waste generation in the public areas. Improvement recommendations and focus areas for further study have been indicated and have been taken up by the mall management. Quick scans in members’ stores are currently under way.

The advantage of involving retail chains like Woolworths, CNA or Foschini, in waste minimisation clubs is, firstly, that the individual stores or franchise operators, as the case may be, report back to their head offices on demonstrable cost savings achieved by implementing the waste reduction measures. This motivates the extension of similar measures to other stores in the chain. Further, these leading, national retail groups hold considerable leverage with their suppliers and can influence changes in product design to suit their needs in terms of waste minimisation.

“Ideally, we should be working towards a cradle-to-cradle cycle, where every product is forever renewable,” says Erleigh. “Manufacturers in some industry sectors are beginning to recognise this, not just as a possibility but as a reality, and they are taking responsibility for the waste that they bring into the world.”

The Waste Exchange
As well as its other programmes which are working towards a cleaner Cape Town, the City handles an electronic Waste Exchange. This has been set up to provide an online platform for listing waste materials wanted and waste materials available. The website: www.capetown.gov.za/iwex  can be accessed nationally and the listings, which are verified by the City of Cape Town, are logged by type of material. Hard copies are distributed to local communities without Internet access by the City’s community co-ordinators. The Waste Exchange is well used by industry and organisations such as the University of Cape Town’s SHAWCO, who list what they are looking for and seek out suppliers via the website.

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CHEMICALS

The chemical sector – key concerns
The chemical industry’s environmental footprint is huge since it deals with some of the most dangerous substances on earth. The sector’s work on improving its environmental record is evident in the report prepared by the International Council of Chemical Associations and presented to the United Nations Environment Programme for the World Summit.

The chemical industry operates in nearly every country in the world. It is also growing at a rate equal to or greater than the Gross Domestic Products in many developing countries. World chemical industry production exceeds US$1,7 trillion annually, and almost 30% of this production is traded internationally.

The top ten chemical companies have revenues in the range of US$10-30 billion. The chemicals’ industry employs over 10 million people world-wide (though ‘rightsizing’ has led to employment levels falling by 7,5% over the last ten years). Most bigger companies allot 4-6% of their annual sales to research and development (1,5% for developing countries).

Established in 1989, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) today represents 85% of chemical production world-wide. Many chemical companies have also joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which is a business organisation that promotes the pursuit of sustainable development by companies. ICCA has supported the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and worked with the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS).

The chemical industry is diverse – starting with such raw materials as oil, coal, gas, air, water and minerals: the chemical industry converts these materials into fertilisers, paints, coatings, crop protection chemicals, solvents, plastics, resins, plasticisers and stabilisers, pharmaceuticals, human and animal health-care products, cosmetics, food additives and preservatives, refrigerants, flavours and fragrances, starches and derivatives, photographic chemicals, soaps and detergents, synthetic fibres, dyes and pigments, inks, building and insulation materials, electronics chemicals, biocides, water treatment chemicals, flame retardants, synthetic fuels and additives, catalysts (such as for emission control), synthetic rubbers and adhesives, waxes, industrial and medical gases, explosives and timber preservatives.

The chemical industry’s environmental footprint includes injuries and illnesses to employees and contractors, incidents like fires, explosions, accidental releases to the environment, transportation incidents, global emissions and waste, and the use of non-renewable raw materials and energy.

‘Responsible Care’ is the industry’s primary instrument to reduce this footprint. Responsible Care is an international chemical industry voluntary initiative which promotes the continual improvement in health, safety and environmental performance at company level, through national associations. Committed companies sign a pledge to improve performance and communicate with stakeholders. National implementation of Responsible Care has grown from 13 countries in 1992 to 46 today, from all continents. A major challenge will be to bring all countries on board.

Increasing public concern about the health and safety of chemical products has prompted the industry to provide more information about the substances that it makes. Work is well underway in two major ICCA initiatives. The High Production Volume (HPV) programme will generate complete safety data packages on 1 000 high production volume substances by the end of 2004 and the Long-range Research Initiative (LRI), another global chemical industry effort, is funding research so as to understand more about the effects of chemicals on human health and the environment.

The Chemical and Allied Industries Association (CAIA), which is the custodian of Responsible Care in South Africa undertakes self-assessments of implementation on a biannual basis and is in the process of developing a system for third party verification, starting with transportation which was introduced in 2001.

Multinational chemical companies committing to Responsible Care bring world-wide standards into each of their countries of operation. In 1991 Procter & Gamble purchased Rakona State Enterprise in the Czech Republic, a producer of detergents and liquid cleaners. Since then it has invested $85million to update the facility focusing on health, safety and environmental upgrades. Today, the facility meets all world-wide Procter & Gamble standards in these areas.

Changing consumption patterns (Chapter 4, Agenda 21)
Chemical companies around the world compete with each other in developing technological innovations that bring about the same quantity of the product with less input of raw materials and energy, and less output of wastes and effluents. Mitsui Chemicals, for example, has put into commercial use a new process to make hydroquinone, an important material for photographic development that has substantially less environmental impact than the conventional process. Similar examples in Japan include the direct oxidation of methyl methacrylate monomer and gas-phase polymerisation of polyolefins. Recently, Enichem of Italy and Sumitomo Chemical of Japan have worked together to jointly develop a new process to produce caprolactam in gas phase that eliminates the traditionally inevitable by-production of ammonium sulphate.

Some leading chemical companies are beginning to sell services rather than kilograms of chemicals. Contracts between the company and the customer ensure that, for example, the end user has a clean stack rather than providing a specific product, and this provides greater scope for creativity in finding the most efficient way of fulfilling customers’ needs.

Combating poverty (Chapter 3, Agenda 21)
Operating world-wide, the chemical industry contributes to reduce poverty in developing countries. Direct job creation is only one aspect to be considered, together with taxes collected at various levels of government and downstream economic development.

The salaries paid by chemical companies are high compared to other sectors. In Brazil, for example, the average salary in the chemical industry is comparable to that of the United States.

Multinational chemical companies provide local social infrastructure. For example, in June 2000, Dow officially delivered to the City Hall of Guarujá the Municipal Day Nursery ‘Grace Anna Dow’. The new day nursery has the capacity to shelter almost 80 children, benefiting 60 families.

Lack of access to safe drinking water is one of the most pressing needs for about 10 million of South Africa’s population. The South African chemical industry has supported rural water supply schemes in proximity to some of its operations. In addition chemical companies producing water treatment chemicals support water conservation awareness programmes.

Education can raise the living standards of a society. The chemical industry in South Africa supports improvements in the teaching of chemistry by arranging study tours for science teachers to chemical plants and has presented a teaching aid on chemistry for secondary schools to the Department of Education. In addition, the industry has sponsored the publication of ‘Chemistry and the Environment’, a teaching aid for primary schools.

Promoting sustainable human“development (Chapter 7, Agenda 21)
The chemical industry in South Africa is seeking meaningful partnerships with potential entrepreneurs. Sasol has recently established Chemcity, which aims to facilitate the entry of young entrepreneurs into the chemical industry by providing raw materials and environmental services in an integrated way, allowing the fledgling company to focus on the business of making chemicals.

The recently completed joint venture between Bayer and Dow to produce chrome salts from South African chrome ore, rather than exporting the ore, is an example of the industry’s commitment to promoting economically efficient resource productivity so that the local population benefits from productive use of natural resources.

The gas to liquid technology developed and implemented in South Africa has provided the foundation for a thriving downstream chemical industry, which unlocks job creation potential in the plastic conversion and paint industries.

Protection of the atmosphere (Chapter 9, Agenda 21)
In Japan, 293 companies belonging to the Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) succeeded in the year 2000 in reducing their average unit consumption by 7% caompared with the 1990 level. It should be recalled that Japan is highly dependent on imported energy sources and was one of the world pioneers in energy saving, even before 1990. JCIA’s goal now is to achieve a further 3% reduction by 2010. In Europe, CO2 emissions per unit of production fell by 30% in the period 1985-1998, and the European Chemical Industry Association (CEFIC) has committed to reducing specific energy consumption by 30% by 2010, in its Voluntary Energy Efficiency Programme (VEEP). In the USA, ACC members achieved an average annual improvement in energy efficiency of 2,4% from 1992 to 1998, for a total improvement of 13,5%.

Environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes (Chapter 20, Agenda 21)
ICCA members are committed to the safe management and reduction of waste and Pollution Prevention Codes are built into most associations’ programmes and management systems.

The American Chemistry Council version of the Responsible Care Pollution Prevention Code is a typical example: it is designed to achieve ongoing reductions in the amount of all contaminants and pollutants released to the air, water and land from member company facilities.

In South Africa, the introduction of waste management plans at site level is being encouraged in parallel with audits of waste disposal service providers. Large empty containers are in high demand, particularly for purposes of water storage. The CAIA is preparing an audit protocol that will be used to certify all drum reconditioning firms who recondition drums for the chemical industry, in an effort to reduce the inappropriate use of containers.

Where have the key areas of progress been?
The sound management of chemicals or implementation of Chapter 19 of Agenda 21 enjoys special attention from the chemical industry and the HPV and LRI projects represent specific contributions from the industry to improve this area.

Waste has been reduced, pollution minimised, feedstock utilisation improved and there is safer chemicals handling and better design of productls. ‘Indicators of Performance’ are invariably based on extensive dialogue with stakeholders, and many chemical companies and associations have been publishing their HSE results since the early 1990s.

ICCA started with its first data collection in 1999, when 32 countries reported on safety performance – the number of fatalities and number of lost time injuries per million working hours (LTIR) – in their Responsible Care companies. The LTIR for 27 countries in 1996 was 11, falling to 10,5 in 1997 and 10,3 in 1998. Due to the large differences in legislation, culture and occupational health practices, all countries have not yet agreed on an occupational health measure.

In Europe, a system of indicators of environmental performance has been agreed on by CEFIC. Their guidelines provide a reporting and monitoring framework with a comprehensive set of core parameters to be used as a basic template by sites, companies and CEFIC federations. Each national federation is able to compare its performance with the European trend.

CEFIC has published a considerable range of indicators to show the performance of the majority of the European chemical manufacturers. Over the period 1996-1999, the achieved reductions are shown in brackets for the following indicators: Lost Time Injury Frequency (20%), Phosphorous (28%), Nitrogen (28%) and Heavy Metals (20%) to water, Chemical Oxygen Demand (17%), Sulphur dioxide (SO22) (42%), Nitrogen oxides (NOx) (18%) and Volatile Organic Compounds (34%) to air, and Distribution Accidents (35%).

In the US, the American Chemistry Council has been tracking Toxic Release Inventory reductions for a core list of chemicals at more than 900 facilities. Since 1988, member companies have reduced releases of toxic chemicals to the air, land and water by 58%. During that same period, chemical production increased by 18%.

In Canada, the Canadian Chemical Producers Association (CCPA) reported a 60% reduction in emissions of chemicals to air from the first year of reporting, 1992, up to 1999, with a further projected saving of 14% by 2003. CCPA employee injuries were reduced by 33% and transport incidents per 100000 shipments reduced by almost 50% over the same period.

The Pollutant Release Transfer Register (PRTR) legislation in Japan came into effect in April, 2001. As early as 1992, however, the Japanese Chemical Industry Association launched its own voluntary initiatives to manage air pollution. The chemical industry chose 12 highest( priority substances out of the list of 22 that the government’s Central Environmental Council had designated as harmful. JCIA set a target of a 30 % reduction on average of the chemical’s emission from the 1995 levels by the end of 1999. This target was met by the deadline – the 2000 results represented a 52,1 % reduction.

The Australian Chemical and Plastics Manufacturers Association (PACIA), recorded a 60% reduction in employee lost time injuries from 1990 to 1999, and an overall downward trend in distribution incidents. The South African Association, CAIA, started collecting safety and health data and number of prosecutions in 1998 – first publishing in 1999. Though it is early days, the figures indicate fewer employee accidents and a reduction of occupational diseases.

Most importantly, a large number of chemical associations have made the data available in printed format or directly accessible on their web sites.

Future challenges and goals
While significant progress has been made in the sound management of chemicals, examples of misuse of chemicals resulting in human illness and environmental pollution still occur, particularly in the developing world. Capacity building in this area has thus been identified as a key area for support. In its sectoral report to UNEP ICCA has identified areas in which capacity building is required. The biannual global Responsible Care Report similarly identifies a number of areas where capacity needs to be built to improve the sound management of chemicals. As part of its preparation for the Summit, the ICCA has undertaken case studies on capacity building for chemical management in South Africa and Brazil.

The results of these two case studies, together with other experiences and efforts already undertaken by various national chemical industry federations/associations, as well as by the Intergovernmental Forum for Chemical Safety (IFCS), UNEP and the United Nations Institute: Training Institute (UNITAR), will be used to prepare a broad capacity building action plan as part of a partnership involving the industry and these institutions.

Although the chemical industry has improved its performance and increased its contributions to sustainable development over the last ten years, there is recognition within the industry itself, and requests from its stakeholders, that a more visionary and ambitious programme of actions should be adopted. More active involvement of stakeholders in the development and implementation of such a programme remains a significant challenge.

Elements of a future programme of action include extension of product stewardship up and down the supply chain, faster phase-out of products that present unacceptable health and environmental challenges, development and implementation of a global strategic initiative on chemicals management, extension of the HPV project and further improvement of Responsible Care.

Agricultural poisons: some key concerns
Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are by definition toxic since they are biocides aimed at killing insects, weeds or fungi. They are a ‘necessary evil’ in ‘non-organic’ agriculture but should be used as sparingly and carefully as possible. Of course, the ultimate answers to the poison problem lie in such practices as organic farming, permaculture (see EduPlant story on page 198), biological control and integrated pest management. Some chemical companies, sensing growing public resistance to agrichemicals, have begun touting genetic modification (GM) as the answer to agricultural problems, since plants can be genetically modified to resist pests. However, this technology is largely untested and its future implications are uncertain. Already some animals fed on GM foods show compromised growth, some GM plant species have ‘escaped’ into the environment and insects are developing resistance to genetic modifications in plants. We could easily be releasing agents into the environment capable of damaging ecosystems and organisms that have taken years to evolve.

The world has finally woken up to the long term problems caused by pesticides, particularly to a group known as the ‘Dirty Dozen’ organochlorine compounds, including DDT which can persist in the environment for over 30 years. Traces of DDT are still found in breastmilk and the fat of mammals in the Arctic, years after the use of this pesticide was discontinued in the First World. DDT is still used in South Africa against malarial mosquitoes but applied only to the walls of homes and not into the open environment.

Another big problem is posed by the stockpiles of old-fashioned organochlorine and organophosphate poisons. The International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), its member federations and their companies have been actively involved in the negotiations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Stockholm Convention. The Stockholm Convention aids action at a global level to control or eliminate products which present unacceptable environmental and health risks. Another international instrument developed since the Earth Summit in Rio is the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC).

ICCA is encouraging its members to participate in rapid implementation of both the PIC and POPs Conventions. ICCA would like to see the entry into force of the Rotterdam Convention announced at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Furthermore, the chemical industry is committed to not producing new chemicals presenting the characteristics of POPs, according to the Convention’s criteria.

Managing obsolete pesticides
An ambitious, but long overdue project for the environmentally sustainable management of obsolete pesticides in southern Africa has been launched under the auspices of the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Association of South Africa (AVCASA).

South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland will soon be getting rid of their Dirty Dozen pesticides. An obsolete pesticide recovery project has been launched: it will be managed by DANCED (Danish Co-operation for Environment and Development), executed by the National Department of Agriculture of South Africa and implemented by AVCASA (Crop Protection and Animal Health Association of South Africa), in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.

Africa has a huge stockpile of outdated and expired pesticides formerly used in the sphere’s of agriculture and public health. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that there are several hundred thousand tons of obsolete pesticide stocks world-wide, with more than 100 000 tons in developing countries (20 000 tons in Africa and 2000 tons in Southern Africa).

Obsolete pesticides include, amongst others, the 12 Dirty Dozen deregistered persistent organic pollutants (POPS) namely the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane), endrin, heptachlor, mirex and toxaphene; and industrial chemicals such as hexachlorobenzene, PCBs, and unintended by-products of combustion such as dioxins and furans.

The project is subdivided into two phases: namely an inventory project, and a collection and management project. The inventory project, lasting approximately eight months, will compile inventories of obsolete pesticides in each of the five countries and develop master trainers to train national extension officers. A questionnaire will be sent to farmers and businesses to determine obsolete pesticide quantities and develop a collection strategy.

Collection and disposal will probably begin in 2003 and take 18 months. Obsolete pesticides will be collected, identified, re-packaged, transported and disposed of. Disposal could be through take-back or reformulation schemes, or through treatment as waste.

To ensure sustainability, a comprehensive training programme on the safe use of pesticides will be launched. This will discourage future stockpiling. The problem with empty pesticide containers, which are often misused for domestic purposes, will also be addressed. Stricter regulations governing the registration, handling and transportation of pesticides across borders are envisaged.

Delivering on environmental and social responsibilities
When you pay in rands but earn dollars, you may make huge profits but your overseas clients will demand environmental and social sustainability.

Sasol has come up with a somewhat different definition of sustainability as “the internalisation of environmental and social responsibilities into our core business strategy in a phased manner that enables us to deliver lasting benefits to current and future generations of shareholders, employees and other stakeholders.”

Certainly, shareholders have enjoyed the recent prolonged bull run on resources stocks but one can’t help but ask one small question regarding economic sustainability – is it fair to charge South African consumers of Sasol’s products in the equivalent of dollars?

Sasol says it achieves the bulk of its almost R18,4 billion in wealth creation in South Africa. But is it also an expanding contributor to the economies of Europe, America and elsewhere. Certainly, the South African government is delighted with its (direct taxes only) R3,9 billion but whether this money trickles down to the masses is debatable. A lot of it remains at government level paying off presidential jets and arms procurements (though this is clearly not Sasol’s fault).

Happily, Sasol’s employees (30 800 people world-wide) collectively earn more than our government, some R4,9billion. Sasol says its contribution to the South African state is greater than the almost R4 billion shown above for direct taxes. Taking into account other statutory payments, including employees’ tax, customs and excise duties, property taxes, value-added tax (VAT) and Regional Services Council (RSC) levies, the group contributed R5, 6 billion to public sector coffers in the financial year of 2001. These contributions, in turn, are vital to funding education, health care, water and electricity services, roadworks and other vital State-driven programmes – if government indeed spends it on these things.

Empowering people
Besides offering much-needed employment, Sasol funds a series of sponsored community upliftment and related socio-economic programmes that are clustered in a R25 million per annum corporate social investment (CSI) programme. For the foreseeable future, Sasol will continue to devote most of its CSI funds to six primary areas, with the emphasis on the continuing need to assist and empower individuals and groups from historically disadvantaged communities: 
•            education, training and human resource building;
•            job creation, capacity building and small-business development;
•            community facilities and infrastructure, including clinics, crèches, classrooms and libraries;
•            arts and culture;
•            health care, especially HIV/Aids counselling, education and hospice programmes; and
•            nature conservation, environmental education and related community environmental programmes.

During the 2001 financial year, Sasol – excluding Sasol Chemie – invested about R115 million into skills development, training and associated competency-building initiatives. This investment covers in-house technical and related functional training, the financing of computerised self-learning centres and the continuing commitment to a large undergraduate bursary programme.

At least 50% of current and future Sasol bursaries will be allocated to people from “designated groups” under South Africa’s new Employment Equity Act: black people (Africans, Coloureds and Indians), women and people with disabilities.

Giving disadvantaged people a leg up also entails providing business opportunities for them through a sustainable black economic empowerment programme in South Africa. Highlights of Sasol’s growing empowerment commitment include its involvement with, and support for, businesses and other initiatives such as Exel Petroleum, ChemCity, Comparex Africa (formerly PQ Africa), Macadam Franchise Company and various new, independent chemical companies. The Mozambique natural gas project, under development, will also entail a significant black empowerment component.

The corporate commitment to affirmative procurement has grown substantially since the 1997 financial year when Sasol purchased, in value, R93,3 million of all its goods and services from empowerment enterprises. By the close of the 2000 financial year, the value had grown to R341,4 million. By mid-year of the 2001 financial year, the annualised value had increased to R594,2 million.

Sasol’s empowerment commitment commenced in earnest in February 1997 with the formation of Exel Petroleum. Two empowerment groups, the National Black Fuel Retailers’ Association and Powerlib, control this promising new oil company. Exel already operates more than 100 service stations in South Africa. By June 2001, it had captured 2% and 4,6% of the national petrol and diesel markets, respectively.

Tosas, the Sasol/Total South Africa bitumen production and marketing joint-venture company, has facilitated the establishment of two promising joint ventures with extensive black empowerment. Sasol and Tosas facilitated the shareholdings of Exel and BT Sec in Black Top Holdings, resulting in control of this successful road construction company with an annual turnover of about R300 million.

In a collaborative venture with PHR Partnership, Tosas has established Macadam Franchise Company, which participates in public-sector road construction and maintenance contracts. This new company specialises in promoting and securing labour-intensive road construction activities through black economic empowerment franchises.

Sasol Technology operates a downstream chemical industry development initiative. To date, this programme has helped to establish twelve new chemically oriented businesses, four of which have an empowerment component. These businesses, combined, manufacture or blend, market and support products such as water-treatment chemicals, industrial cleaning chemicals, zirconium chemicals, lime sulphur, anhydrous sodium sulphate, hair-care products and plant extracts.

Globalisation unlocks challenges
Globalisation has precipitated the need to establish global best practice, especially in the Safety Health and Environment arena says Dr Mike Rose, Sasol’s general manager responsible for corporate safety, health and environment (SH&E). Sasol is active in Canada, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, Dubai, Malaysia, China, Japan, Mozambique, the Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Qatar and Nigeria are being added to the list now that site work has commenced on the first two international joint-venture gas-to-liquids projects.

Sasol also signed the United Nations’ (UN) Global Compact initiative in July 2001, championed by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan at the World Economic Forum at Davos, to promote environmentally and socially responsible global growth. Sasol remains committed to the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS). Since introducing the ISO 14001 system in 1996, the group now has 36 operations managing the EMS under ISO 14001 certification in South Africa, alone. This accomplishment means the group has now passed the halfway mark in its programme to have all relevant operations managed with ISO 14001 certification. Sasol has been a Responsible Care signatory since 1994

Sasol measures and reports on both its financial and non-financial impacts. In the context of Sasol’s South African operations, the expanded and revised King Code on Corporate Governance (King 2) has recently been introduced.

The most recent Sasol SHE report, published in March 2001, reveals a series of encouraging progressions in such critical areas as:
•            implementing behaviour-based safety training and management programmes;
•            reducing the number of reportable workplace injuries;
•            lowering dust levels in underground mines;
•            reducing atmospheric emissions, including greenhouse gases, particulates and volatile organic compounds;
•            formulating new-generation liquid hydrocarbon fuels;
•            expanding in-house intellectual capital and support systems in support of sustainability;
•            undertaking strategic environmental assessments; and
•            signing environmental management co-operation agreements – as occurred recently before commencing the Natref refinery expansion.

The lowlights include:
•            the increased number of workplace fatalities;
•            the hydrogen sulphide emissions from coal-fired operations;
•            a comparatively high number of transport-related incidents; and
•            the illness and deaths of employees as a result of South Africa’s HIV/Aids pandemic.
•            Clean Development Mechanism initiative

Given new global initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially the industrial production of CO₂, Sasol has an application to register its overall Sasol natural gas conversion project with the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC), the world body tasked with the reduction of greenhouse gases.

According to the Sasol SHE Centre’s air quality and emissions trading specialist, Pieter du Toit: “Sasol has embarked on a strategic process to respond appropriately to the UN FCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. One key aspect of this strategic process is to explore potential Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project opportunities, one of which is the new Sasolburg feedstock conversion initiative.”

Sasol has also launched a mega project to bring Mozambican natural gas to customers in Mozambique and South Africa. The natural gas conversion project at Sasolburg – based on estimates produced for the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – will contribute towards improved air quality in the greater Vaal Triangle region. Odorous hydrogen sulphide emissions will be eliminated. Ambient emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, combined, will be reduced by about 17%, while particulates could be lowered by as much as 6%. It has also been estimated that SCI’s Sasolburg emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) – the most critical greenhouse gas under the Kyoto Protocol – could be reduced by almost five-million tonnes a year.

The introduction of natural gas from Mozambique would not be economically feasible without a significant base load. Converting Sasol’s coal-based synthesis gas-producing activities at Sasolburg to process natural gas will provide the desired base load. Sasol has therefore committed itself to a multi-million rand project to convert the front end of the main Sasolburg factory on the Sasol One site to process natural gas instead of coal as the primary hydrocarbon feedstock. The Sasol One site is expected to switch over to natural gas conversion in May 2004.

“Global warming has become a critical international issue and far more concerted efforts are going to have to be made to reduce CO₂ emissions,” says Rose. “Stricter new emission laws are being passed in European Union countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands in response to their growing regional pressures, as well as the Kyoto Protocol. Such developments also position Sasol to trade in emission credits.”

The production of affordable, clean-burning natural gas will be a boon to the economies of both Mozambique and South Africa. The Sasolburg plant’s annual coal requirement will drop from the current six-million tonnes to about two million tonnes as the primary energy source for the factory’s power and steam plants. Sasol will no longer use coal for gasification and will therefore decommission the long-serving Lurgi coal gasifiers and related production facilities. In turn, the Sasolburg regional operations of Sasol Mining will significantly downscale their production. Most of the affected employees will be relocated to other Sasol posts.

In another significant new project, this time at Secunda, Sasol has approved the R260 million capital to construct and commission a new-generation evaporator crystalliser plant at its Secunda operations. This plant will enable the group to further reduce its consumption of raw river water, an increasingly precious commodity in Southern Africa.

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TRANSPORT

Transport – some key concerns
“If you don’t drive less, have one car, or walk more, you cannot call yourself an environmentalist.” American author, Jane Holtz Kay.

Transport is vital but most transport systems cause air pollution, land degradation, noise, traffic congestion and accidents. In Africa, 80% of all trips are still made by non-motorised forms of transport. Bicycles are deemed the most energy-efficient form of transport: five times more efficient than walking and 50 times better than a car. In some Asian economies as many as 30% of all jobs are directly or indirectly involved with bicycles.

Efforts are underway to develop alternative fuels and engines. Short-term efforts focus on improving fuel efficiency, mass transportation and limiting urban sprawl.

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions has been largely due to increased fossil fuel consumption, particularly for transportation. Global carbon emissions doubled between 1965 and 1998 and are at an all time high according to the American Worldwatch Institute publication Vital Signs 2002. Energy consumption for transportation increased more rapidly than other uses in the 1990s, with petroleum accounting for 95% of that consumption. CO2 emissions from this sector are expected to increase by 75% between 1997 and 2020. CO2 emissions from aircraft are expected to increase even more rapidly, at 3% per year.

Transcontinental transport has many environmental implications. The environmental impacts of shipping include oil spills, and the release of ballast water into foreign harbours which introduces invasive alien species. Air travel affects the environment through noise, emissions and resource use (particularly fuel). The industry constantly invests in lower noise engines. Aviation’s pollution of the atmosphere is rivalling noise as its greatest impact. Although there have been improvements in fuel efficiency, overall consumption and associated emissions are increasing. Globally, aviation contributes 2% of CO2 emissions and 12% of the total CO2 caused by the transport industry. It also emits nitrogen oxides at cruise altitudes.

The use of a vehicle accounts for 70% of its CO2 production in its life cycle. In Europe, passenger cars account for 12% of all CO2 and all road transportation is responsible for 22%.

According to the international Ford Motor Company’s, social responsibility publication Connecting with Society, in Germany Ford has developed an ‘eco-driving programme’ based on fuel economy research and customers have reduced consumption by 25%. Eco-driving involves staying within the speed limit, avoiding unnecessary acceleration (pulling away gently), driving at a steady pace, and not leaving engines idling. Of course in South Africa, to stay in the ‘flow’ of traffic, it is necessary to go from 0 to 60km in the shortest possible time, to go full tilt towards robots and stop streets and then screech to a halt.

In America, the reduction in passenger car emissions from the 1970s to now has been 98%. Leaded petrol will be banned in South Africa in January 2006, says the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs. This is good news but, at present, unleaded petrol may have no lead but it has carcinogenic additives such as benzene and MMT. To be truly environmentally friendly, unleaded will have to find healthier additives. Up to 60% of the brown haze over the Cape Town skyline and up to 45% of that which hangs over Gauteng is caused by diesel particulate emissions. Sulphur in diesel will have to be reduced from 3000 ppm to 500 by 2006.

Stuart Raynor of the National Automobile Association of South Africa (NAAMSA) says 50% of cars sold in South Africa are fitted with catalytic converters. By 2006, 80% of all new petrol vehicles will be fitted with these. Catalytic converters require unleaded fuel. All cars manufactured since the 1980s can run on unleaded fuel; with older cars, an additive or minor engine changes, are required.

According to Connecting with Society, Ford’s aim is to be the leader in safety, even in emerging markets. Ford Southern Africa says its biggest seller is the no-frills Mazda 323 (60% of vehicles sold each month), yet it has no side impact beams, which are little more than steel poles inserted into the doors. The company claims that the customer would not pay and neither would Ford absorb this cost. Safety should be a non-negotiable and not a ‘luxury’ feature – perhaps government should require mandatory safety features.

One of the major problems in First World countries like America, and countries that aspire to American values (like South Africa), is the current trend towards sports utility vehicles (SUVs). According to the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) to reduce our ecological ‘footprint’ households should drive vehicles no larger than 1600cc. According to Ford, SUV’s pose big environmental problems. Their fuel economy is far less than cars and the migration of consumers away from cars to SUVs has increased greenhouse gas emissions and undone all the good that fuel efficiencies have achieved, post 1970. Furthermore, SUV’s are classified as light trucks and permitted dirtier exhausts than cars, thus doubling emissions. SUV’s pose a safety problem for other road users. In America 35% of vehicles on the road are now light trucks. They are heavier and have a more rigid frame and pose more of a threat to other vehicles and pedestrians. They also have a higher stance which blocks the view of other cars. These issues will be even more significant as lightweight, fuel efficient electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles are introduced.

South Africa has an appalling road safety record. There are literally hundreds of unlicensed drivers and unroadworthy vehicles on our roads. What is worse is that even licensed drivers and vehicles routinely break the speed limit, ignore traffic signs and tailgate other vehicles. Small wonder that South Africa kills 10 000 people on the roads per year (about 25 per day) at a cost of R25 million per day to the country’s economy, according to the NGO Drive Alive.

Moves to improve public transport are thus always welcomed. One such idea is the R1,8 billion ‘Gautrain’ – a high speed train which will service the Gauteng area and reduce congestion on the motorways around Johannesburg and Pretoria. A new tolling system on the Ben Schoeman is also planned with the aim of reducing congestion. However, the train is currently meeting resistance from people who don’t want their properties expropriated. Even the government’s taxi recapitalisation plan, a plan to replace the unroadworthy death traps currently transporting lower income people around the country with new vehicles, has been resisted, and delays have led to huge cost increases since the rand lost value last year. Government is also upgrading its railways, both urban and intercity. This is good news but commuters need to stop vandalising trains. Government was recently quoted saying “lack of funds” were to blame for commuter riots and arson, when the commuters themselves chose to run amok. Commuters may have legitimate grievances about poor train service but the appropriate response is not to vandalise the trains since it only compounds the problem.

South Africans also have few incentives to ‘green’ their transportation. The only local authority that has made any effort in this regard has been Midrand. A thriving franchise selling reconditioned bicycles (see story on page 243) has begun in Ivory Park with eight franchisees – eight youths were selected by the community. Ivory Park serves as a pilot project for an initiative that could go countrywide. R1 million has been pledged by the Department of Transport to build a bicycle track of six kilometres which will link many of the schools in Ivory Park.

Motorists in Midrand are being targeted via two initiatives: Drive Share and Zip Lanes. There are currently two zip lanes at Midrand’s busiest intersections and cars with two or more occupants may use these at peak hours. There are currently 14drive share clubs which operate on the basis of vehicle rotation (no money may change hands). Council helps to network willing people. The transport department is also changing legislation so that drive sharing is facilitated (perhaps through green taxes and rebates), drive share opportunities for disabled people are found and zip lanes extended.

In Holland, car ownership had tripled from 2 million in the 1970s to more than 6 million, and was projected to reach 8 million by 2010, reports the Worldwatch Institute. Fearing the kind of nightmarish congestion and pollution that has engulfed such places as Mexico City and Bangkok, the Dutch planners backed car sharing, a new idea that was spreading rapidly across Europe. The agency places cars – reserved and marked for car sharing – around the city. Today, some 70000 members in 300 towns and cities in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austriac, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Ireland belong to car-sharing groups.

Electric cars – the way of the future?
Carel Snyman, advanced energy systems manager at Technology Services International (TSI), a division of Eskom Enterprises, drives a red bakkie. He disconnects it from a plug point. We get in, switch it on and off we zoom. It takes us 9 seconds to get from 0 to 100 km/hour, hardly surprising since the engine delivers 150kW of power. The car can also reach a speed of 160 km per hour. Snyman commutes from his home in Midrand to work in Rosherville, on the highway, every day. But not at that speed!

“Driving electric requires planning,” he says. “You have got to watch the amp hours leaving the batteries and adjust your driving style and speed in order to get to your end destination. I feel good driving this car because I know I am not polluting.” Wonderful that there are still people in the world who rate the greater good above how fast or flashy their cars are!

Sadly, at present, such a car would cost R250 000 and the batteries would need to be replaced every few years at a cost of R30 000. But there are technologies that could reduce these costs – Snyman just needs a few million to research these. “We need to transfer the needed technologies to South Africa and build the components and vehicles here.”

For now, electric vehicles can be used in niche markets such as golf courses, airport aprons, and as security and other utility vehicles. Later on, they could be used as city commuters – once all the over-large and over-fast petrol cars have been removed from the city environs.

Then Snyman shows off TSI’s little green utility vehicle. The body is made of fibreglass, but he says there is potential for these cars to be made from bio-fibres, making them almost completely biodegradable. Legislation in southern California is demanding that 10% of vehicles must be zero emission by 2003, which opens up a huge potential market for electric cars.

Electric cars are not new. In the late 1800s there were more battery powered cars on the road than internal combustion engines. The first electric car was built in 1837 and in 1912, 30000 electric cars were registered for road use in America. However, advances in the technology of the internal combustion engine were superior and it took over the market – and made the Arab nations rich.

The engines also made cities dirty. Motor cars are responsible for most urban pollution. They give off:
•            Hydrocarbons (HC): responsible for photochemical smogs
•            Nitrogen oxides (NOx): implicated in photochemical smogs and acid rain
•            Carbon monoxide (CO): cars contribute 83% of this deadly gas
•            Particulates (black smoke)
•            Lead or lead-free petrol additives such as benzene: lead is a central nervous system poison and benzene is carcinogenic

Despite this filth, we are a car-crazy world. In 1995, 540 million vehicles travelled earth’s roads. Despite lower fuel consumption, increased vehicle ownership and congestion are driving up pollution levels. What are the answers? All around the world governments are legislating for lower vehicle emissions. Alternative energy sources give off various levels of emission: transitional low emission fuels include the alcohols such as ethanol; low emissions fuels include natural gas; ultra low emission fuels include hydrogen. Current vested interests are pushing hardest for hydrogen powered vehicles, since oil producers can still make money from these. “Pure hydrogen fuel cells or engines are clean like the prototype BMW has just launched,” says Snyman. But the cleanest cars may still be electric ones.

Electricity is so much more efficient in converting natural resource power to motion. The internal combustion engine has 12% efficiency on converting the energy in crude oil into motion. From coal to synthetic fuels (Sasol) to motion, the efficiency is only 4%. But from coal to electricity to motion, the efficiency is 23%. Hydro electricity can increase this figure to 66%! Charging an electric car costs R5per 100 km travelled. At R5 na litre for petrol, it costs R40 to travel 100 km. Electric engines have a longer life and require negligible maintenance. “How often do you service your fridge?” asks Snyman.

Another obstacle to introducing electric cars is that they can only travel 60 to 100 km before needing to be recharged. However, if everyone drove such cars we could have recharge points at all shopping centres and ‘petrol stations’ would have to change over to being ‘plug point stations’.

Table: Environmentally-friendlier road vehicles include:
1.         Fuel cell electrical vehicles run on energy generated by combining hydrogen and oxygen to form electricity. Water vapour is the only emission. Performance is good but costs are high. Also, hydrogen is a highly explosive substance.
2.         Hybrid electric vehicles combine internal combustion with battery electric ‘power trains’. These achieve twice the fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions proportionately. The range and performance is similar to conventional vehicles but cost is high.
3.         Battery electric vehicles use electric motors and batteries are stored on board. These have to be recharged frequently and the range of these cars is limited.
4.         Alternative fuel engines use internal combustion engines but run on compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, ethanol and others (the South African Agricultural News talks about eco-diesel made of seed oils, but then the question is whether one should rather feed people than cars on edible oils). Emissions can be 30% lower. They have similar costs and performance to conventional vehicles. Environmental advantages are less than competing technologies.

Port poised to deliver?
Coega is a showcase government-sponsored deep-water port and associated industrial zone near Port Elizabeth. But is this type of development the most sustainable for an area so rich in natural resources?

Forty metres of Langebaan beach have been lost in the last five years and erosion continues, reports the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA). Several factors have been cited as reasons, including the developments at the Saldanha port. Sadly Langebaan is a core area of the West Coast National Park and the area had potential to become a tourism Mecca in the Western Cape. However, the integrity of Langebaan as a prime natural asset has been lost forever.

By the same token, will Coega benefit the Port Elizabeth region? Or will there be huge costs, both in terms of money and environmental impacts? According to critics these questions have yet to be fully addressed.

The Coega project consists of a proposed deep-water harbour with an associated industrial development zone (IDZ) at Coega on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. The project forms the centrepiece of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI) programme for the region and has been in planning since 1996. Originally focused around a proposed Billiton zinc refinery, and then a steel mill as part of the arms counter-trade deal, the project now appears to have no industrial anchor tenant, with attention switching to the use of the harbour as a container trans-shipment ‘hub’.

SDIs aim to kick-start the economic potential in specific, under-developed areas of southern Africa. The port falls into the Fish River SDI, which covers the area between East London and Port Elizabeth. According to a spokesman for the Coega Development Corporation (CDC), Raymond Hartle, there are two aspects to the project: the National Ports Authority (NPA) is responsible for developing the harbour; and the CDC is responsible for developing the IDZ. In February 2002 the NPA published the main marine tender for the port.

The CDC has R800 million for developing a core 6 000 ha of a 12000ha IDZ. This includes infrastructure such as roads, water, sewage and telecommunications and could take 15 years to complete. The R800million comes from provincial and national government (the CDC is owned by the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, a provincial parastatal).

It is envisaged that the IDZ will attract investors in the metallurgical, automotive, electronic and warehousing industries. CDC is not limited to R800 million but is free to seek private sector investment in infrastructure. Hartle believes the project will generate jobs on a scale equivalent to Saldanha Bay, Richards Bay and the Mossgas projects. He says that there will be ‘inducer effects’ which means that gardening services, food retailers and other business will grow due to the IDZ.

Recently, Anglo-Dutch consortium P&O Nedlloyd/TCI was appointed as “the preferred private partner” for the construction of the container terminal. It is anticipated that the project will take place in two phases: the initial phase of a 4 120 ha core area (10 – 20 years), will be followed by a second phase (50 – 100 years) which is expected to result in a total development area of 12 000 to 17 000 ha. The company’s involvement is seen as a vote of confidence in the project.

The greatest vote of confidence has come from government – at all levels. Huge objections have been raised concerning everything from forced removals, to flouting the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), to economic and environmental warnings – but government has pushed on undeterred. Critics allege that the project has been railroaded through. In February 2001, work commenced on roads before the EIA had been completed but the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), Valli Moosa said the EIA had not been flouted. Eastern Cape Economic Affairs MEC Enoch Godongwana is reported as stating, “We will not turn back! This project has reached a point of no return.”

According to Moosa and director general of the DEAT Chippy Olver, Coega is geologically already a ‘deep port’ and can be built with relative ease. The new breed of container ships requires deep harbours. “We must seize this economic opportunity since we can service the entire East and West African coastlines,” Olver enthuses. The environment will be monitored and there will be an independent monitor for each area of concern.

Alec Erwin, the minister of the Department of Trade and Industry, has hit out at attempts by environmental organisations to prevent the Coega project on “spurious” environmental grounds. He believes it is “criminal” not to develop Coega.