Cape Town will soon get its first eco-suburb, with 600 homes, showcasing sustainable living — from its own on-site sewage treatment facility to environmentally friendly construction methods.
Oude Molen, an 18ha site earmarked by the Western Cape government for the R80-million eco-development project, is already a platform for “alternative” living, with organic farming, a frail-care centre, a restaurant and backpackers’ lodges. In the late 1990s about 70 tenants moved on to the land — where Cape Town’s first mill once stood and where King Cetshwayo was jailed between 1881 and 1882. At that time the historic homestead with its 300-year-old buildings and manor house was in a state of neglect.
Nowadays, professionals and artists are a driving force behind small businesses, which form the economic backbone of the community and employ 300 people. The community also extends its support to poor neighbouring areas in the form of organic food donations, and the Gaia Waldorf School has established a bursary scheme for children from poor families.
According to planning proposals, the school, frail-care centre and organic farm are integral to form the Oude Molen Sustainable Neighbourhood Project’s future development.
The project will get under way late next year and aims to reverse the impact of apartheid town planning, which removed poor, black communities to the urban edges. The site, near Pinelands, is within easy reach of city workplaces, shopping facilities and tertiary institutions.
Western Cape minister of public works and transport Marius Fransman says the project will demonstrate that “it is possible to rebuild communities in a way that makes it affordable to live in the inner city … and that this can be done in harmony with nature”.
The project includes the construction of two- and three-storey apartment buildings with a mix of 600 low- and middle-income flats, some of which will allow poor families to use their government housing subsidies to acquire homes in the city. This attempt to achieve social equity is in line with the sustainable human settlement policy launched by Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu in September last year.
According to project architect Mokena Makeka, of Makeka Design Laboratory, additional middle-class freestanding houses are planned around a public square and “heritage court” leading to the old Manor House, a 17th-century building that the planners are hoping to have declared a heritage site.
The former psychiatric hospital buildings, that once formed part of Valkenberg, will be converted into living units with dowstairs workshops earmarked for crafters.
The school and an NGO will be accommodated around an open area, and commercial developments are planned for the other side land.
Key to the Oude Molen’s ecological sustainability is a “recycling wing”. An on-site sewage treatment facility is planned to treat and recycle effluent, creating “grey water” that will be used to flush toilets and irrigate fields. Solid waste will be recycled through a series of filters and organic waste will be turned into compost. Rainwater will be harvested to reduce water consumption.And energy requirements will be cut down through efficient architectural design.
Clay non-fired bricks will be used in construction, not only to reduce costs, but also because their production only has a slight environmental impact. The use of solar panels and gas will limit the dependence on the electricity grid.
Oude Molen aims to be a “pioneering showcase” of ecological and environmental awareness and social consciousness, says Professor Mark Swilling of the Sustainability Institute at the University of Stellenbosch. Swilling would like to see an entire city comprising sustainable neighbourhoods, which generate their own energy and zero waste, and need little or no fossil fuels to transport residents to jobs and elsewhere.
that this can be done in harmony with nature”.
The project includes the construction of two- and three-storey apartment buildings with a mix of 600 low- and middle-income homes, some of which will allow poor families to use their government housing subsidies to acquire flats in the city. This attempt to achieve social equity is in line with the sustainable human settlement policy launched by Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu in September last year.
According to project architect Mokena Makeka, of Makeka Design Laboratory, additional middle-class freestanding houses are planned around a public square and “heritage court” leading to the Old Manor House, a 17th-century building that the planners are hoping to have declared a heritage site.
The former psychiatric hospital buildings that once formed part of Valkenberg will be converted into living units with downstairs workshops earmarked for crafters.
The school and an NGO will be accommodated around an open area, and commercial developments are planned for the land opposite them.
Key to Oude Molen’s ecological sustainability is a “recycling wing”. An on-site sewage treatment facility is planned to treat and recycle effluent, creating “grey water” that will be used to flush toilets and irrigate fields. Solid waste will be recycled through a series of filters and organic waste will be turned into compost. Rainwater will be harvested to reduce water consumption. Energy requirements will be reduced through efficient architectural design.
Clay non-fired bricks will be used in construction, not only to reduce costs, but also because their production has slightly less of an environmental impact. The use of solar panels and gas will limit dependence on the electricity grid.
Oude Molen aims to be a “pioneering showcase” of ecological and environmental awareness and social consciousness, says Professor Mark Swilling of the Sustainability Institute at the University of Stellenbosch. Swilling would like to see an entire city comprising sustainable neighbourhoods, which generate their own energy and zero waste, and need few or no fossil fuels to transport residents to jobs and elsewhere.
Mother City’s mighty big footprint
Assumptions about continued availability of cheap water, energy and oil that underlie much of current development planning may not hold true for much longer, says Professor Mark Swilling of the Sustainability Institute at Stellenbosch University.
At 4,28ha per capita, Cape Town has one of the highest ecological footprints in the world — a measure used to demonstrate the impact of consumption levels.
This means that, on average, an individual requires this amount of land to meet his or her water, food and waste-disposal needs.
If the rest of the world were to be added to this equation it would take two to three planets to continue consuming as Captonians currently do. The average world footprint is 1,8ha per capita, with the United States at 5,1ha per capita and India at just 0,4ha per capita.
At its current rate of consumption, Cape Town’s water supply is set to run out by 2025. Swilling says the city manages its water “in an extremely inefficient and inequitable manner” with 21,3% used to irrigate gardens and fill swimming pools in 1998. This while hundreds of townships residents only have use of a single outside tap.
The city generates two million tons of waste a year, mostly created by a small elite of high-income earners, and one of the highest waste levels in the world.
In 1998 each high-income earner generated 1,3kg of waste, compared with 0,7kg waste produced by a middle-class person and 0,35kg by a poor person.
With all the city’s landfill sites located on the Cape Flats, this effectively means the poor host the rubbish dumps that absorb the waste of a tiny minority. Interestingly, business is not a major problem as 60% of commercial waste is recycled.
The city is also “extremely vulnerable” to oil-price increases as petrol and diesel dominate its energy use.
This could spell trouble in the near future as economists predict that the price of oil will climb to more than $100 a barrel.
“Cities like Cape Town, where 56% of all energy is derived from oil, will become the least attractive places to run a household and do business as the oil price continues to rise,” warns Swilling. He says it is crucial to reduce travel distances and implement “green” town planning with jobs, shops and other facilities in walking distance. “If this is not done, Capetonians will end up working harder and harder in order to cover the costs of moving around an increasingly fragmented city.” — Marianne Merten