Ecocity – Sustainable Development at Work

By Farah Khan

Delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Sandton, Johannesburg, have been bemused by how decidedly un-African this part of the city looks. Shiny, glass structures and the surrounding mink and manure belt could mean they are in any wealthy country in the world.

But, a short drive away, in Ivory Park on the outskirts of Johannesburg, is a typical sub-Saharan African informal settlement. Poverty extends its claws everywhere. A line of smoke lingers across its skyline -- the detritus of umbhawula's, the traditional tin-drum coal fires that is the main source of warmth and light in most poor black areas. As a result of the smog they give off, respiratory illnesses are common, afflicting six in 10 people.

Children run across pot-holed streets while taxis hoot at them. Four in ten people live in shacks, with the rest in small brick homes. Unemployment afflicts four in 10 adults. Polluted water runs through Ivory Park. Hunger is not acute, but it is apparent.

Life is hard and the environment, one would think, is a distant concern in a community where worrying about where the next meal is coming from is a much more immediate problem.

But, this is where Ecocity was born -- a brave effort to put sustainable development into action. Sustainable development involves protecting the global environment, while ensuring that social and economic development makes life better for those like the people of Ivory Park.

Each of the Summit's sustainable development challenges finds a home in Ivory Park.
These include poverty eradication; access to water and energy; food security; waste management; the prevention of land degradation and environmental health.
"Also, we realised that we had to focus on local economic development and not on the environment," says Ecocity manager, Annie Sugrue.

An R11 million grant from the Danish government got the dream going and since then, partnerships have been struck with a range of funders attracted to its vision. These have included the World Wildlife Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, as well as Swiss, Swedish and Canadian funders. Local and foreign businesses have come to the table, as have different South African government structures.

Ecocity takes the form of several innovative projects, all of which link with the long-term goal of creating a self-sufficient and ecologically-friendly community. In the short-term, all Ecocity projects run on the principles of poverty alleviation and job creation.
Food security was the paramount challenge and one of the first initiatives was the establishment of six co-ops to grow and sell organic vegetables.

The Ecovillage also showcases environmentally sound water management schemes and better ways of planning and building communities. Transport needs have given rise to the successful Shova Lula bicycle co-operative, which encourages cycling as an alternative way of getting around while making a living from the increased use of cycles.

Eighteen-year-old Eldrid Mogatlane strikes a cool picture in her yellow and blue cycling gear. She is a part of a youth group which advocates cycle use as a way to divert young people from drugs and alcohol by creating healthy role models. "I do this to protect myself and it makes me healthy," she says.

And the Iteke waste recycling co-operative is trailblazing better ways to manage waste. Much of the waste generated in Ivory Park and the surrounding suburb of Midrand can be recycled -- and therefore has value.

Iteke has created 18 full-time jobs and heightened awareness of the need to recycle. The waste recycling scheme operates through a system of buy-back centres -- to which residents take materials for recycling, earning 20c a kilogram for bottles and newspaper. Simply by their going to the Buy-Back centre, individuals and groups heighten their awareness of the environment and the need to keep their area clean.

United Nations Development Fund representative, Kule Chitepo, says: "It encapsulates the themes of people, prosperity and planet that are at the heart of the World Summit." It is about the planet because it radically reduces waste; it's about prosperity because it creates jobs and it is about people because it has raised awareness among ordinary people, he explains.