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AFTER winning the most awards of any participating city in last year’s Liveable Communities competition, Johannesburg is back with several more contenders.
The Xtreme Park in Diepkloof is a finalist in the sustainable project category of the Liveable Communities (LivCom) competition
THREE flagship City of Johannesburg projects have caught the attention of the global community. The Xtreme Park in Diepkloof, the Klipriver/Klipspruit rehabilitation, and the Cosmo City development are finalists in the sustainable project category of the Liveable Communities (LivCom) competition.
LivCom is a United Nations initiative recognising those cities and municipalities which make an effort to create liveable spaces for their inhabitants.
The City of Johannesburg has also been nominated as a finalist in the whole city category for the many projects and policies it has working towards creating a cleaner, greener urban environment. The awards ceremony takes place on 10 November in Dongguan, China and will be attended by City officials from the department of environmental management and City Parks.
Joburg's institutional arrangements and interventions are world class, says Shoni Munzhedzi, the director for environmental management in the department. "The mere fact that the City has a dedicated environmental management department says a lot."
Among the policies developed by this department specifically geared towards the environment is an Open Space Development Framework, a 2008 State of the Environment Report, a Stormwater Management Framework and a Climate Change Action Plan.
Extreme projects
Although the Xtreme Park is already a finalist, the competition protocol requires City Parks to enter it to be considered for the competition. It was created in just 24 hours. A new park can take anything from three to six months to develop, making the 24-hour park a unique initiative and a world-record achievement, says Jenny Moodley, City Parks's spokesperson.
Community participation came to the fore in this project and was instrumental in its success, Moodley adds. About half of the 545 people who worked on the park during the 24 hours were sourced directly from the community.
It is not the first Xtreme park created by City Parks; in 2007 the utility created the Wilgeheuwel Park in Roodepoort in under 24 hours. However, the Diepkloof Xtreme Park is exceptional as it is double the size of the Wilgeheuwel Park and has many additional features.
There are paths, trees, benches, lighting and playground equipment, as well as a splash pool, a mini-soccer field, a multipurpose court, a natural amphitheatre area with a big television screen - and all of this was set up in one day.
Eight awards
City Parks entered the Liveable Communities competition for the first time in 2007, and walked off with eight awards, the most of any of the 23 cities that participated. These included the special bursary prize City Parks used to develop the Nkanyezi Stimulation Park for disabled people in Soweto.
City Parks is really making people sit up and take notice, Moodley believes. Its projects include the Dorothy Nyembe Environmental Education Centre in Soweto, the regional Ivory Park, the Greening of Soweto and the Thokoza Park/Moroko Dam rehabilitation, which all received gold awards last year.
"We [City Parks] are not just developing new parks. We create multifunctional parks, bringing passive and active recreation together."
Cosmo City
One of the biggest mixed-use developments in the municipality is Cosmo City, which has been cited by the LivCom judges as a good example of sustainable development.
A number of sustainable development projects are on the go, says Munzhedzi. These include installing solar water heaters at 170 RDP homes in Cosmo City, and planting about 10 000 street trees and trees on private properties. Future projects for the area include ceiling insulation, additional wiring for the RDP homes, and planting more deciduous trees "to make them [RDP houses] as green as possible".
Cosmo City is located in an environmentally sensitive area and, as a result, a large amount of space was reserved for conservation. This area is fenced and will be developed over time for use by the community without compromising the natural ecology, confirms Mandla Mandavha, the environmental management compliance manager for Cosmo City.
Cosmo's success is dependent on the buy-in of the community, says Mandavha. Residents receive environmental awareness training before they move there. "We try to sensitise residents living in Cosmo City."
The Klipriver/Klipspruit rehabilitation will likewise need buy-in, especially in the form of public-private partnerships. This massive rehabilitation of the river and wetland system running through Soweto and Lenasia is one of the legacy projects of the 2010 World Cup.
Master plans
The rehabilitation of the Mapetla Wetlands was one of the first to be initiated under this project. The environmental management department recently completed a hydrological study and wetlands assessment as well as a catchment management framework for the whole area.
The flagship Dorothy Nyembe Park won the award in 2007
Some 30 design master plans have been finalised, with each one guiding work along a particular stretch of this watercourse. But at present there is only money for two of the projects.
"It's a matter of implementation. The Orlando West/Dube down to Ubuntu Kraal [stretch] will be started this financial year," says Munzhedzi. The Mfolo South stretch will also be started in the near future.
At least three of the designs have the potential for public-private partnerships, he says. The Lenasia design is one of these; it includes a nine-hole golf course on the one side while the other bank can accommodate a nursery and water-based activities. "We need a lot of partners."
LivCom Awards are made in three categories covering whole city, sustainable projects and a bursary award of £10 000 (about R150 000) going to the winning project.
The awards were launched internationally in 1997 and are endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme.
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