|
|
Community Ownership
|
Mealie-sellers are a ubiquitous image on the
South African landscape. Turning their cobs to
orange perfection over heated coalfires
(umbhawulas) the sellers in Ivory Park are also green
soldiers because many now use the smokeless
umbhawula. This simple African innovation uses
combustion principles and recycled cans to create a
new product which considerably lessens the amount of
smoke caused by the traditional coal-burning fires.
About 12 000 such fires are lit
every day in Ivory Park. Not all
households are electrified, but
even those connected to the
power grid cannot afford to
switch on all the time because it
is too expensive. The smokeless
umbhawula takes 20 minutes to
start up, compared with the
stuttering three hours the older models need.
“The
smoke that comes out is rounded, not rough, and it is
less of an irritant,” says Francois van der Westhuizen,
the entrepreneur and innovator who designed the
environmentally friendly option.
|  |
This simple method,
which uses three drums instead of one to cut pollution,
is being piloted in Ivory Park and could be extended to
other areas where umbhawulas have been found to be
a key cause of respiratory infections and pollution. The
pilot is one example of how EcoCity secures
community support: by introducing simple, green
solutions into people’s everyday lives.
Virginia Ngobeni is another striking example of
community ownership of the vision. She works with
the Twanano Papermaking Project and has learned a
skill which has pulled her from the ranks of the
unemployed. “You take milk-weed which we cut from
a small tree and cook and beat it. Then we cast it to
make paper,“ she says, showing off delightful wares
including stationery, photo-frames and gift wrap.
Business is not booming, but her new occupation does
make the difference between poverty and subsistence.
By ensuring that its vision is one of poverty alleviation,
EcoCity has secured community support. Its core
projects cut across various age groups. The Shova Lula
project and the Youth Environment Co-operative draw
in young people, teaching them ecological skills.
 | |
“We are trying to ensure that people are aware of
the environment,” says local councillor Petrus Zitha, who
says EcoCity is working because it is people-driven and
not dependent on government consultants as is so often
the case in development projects in
other parts of the country. “People
around here understand the
project. They know it will benefit
them and they have a growing
awareness of the environment,” he
adds.
|
For Develd Monyai of the Iteke Recycling Co-op,
EcoCity has been most successful because it has
inculcated a “can-do” attitude among people. “We must
deal with the culture of hand-outs. People must know
they’ve got the ability to do.” Community ownership is
concretely encouraged through the formation of cooperatives
as the key institutions managing and running
the various projects.
By giving people skills, EcoCity has built on an
entrepreneurial culture very evident in Ivory Park and
areas like it. On its main roads, all manner of food and
produce is sold. Services ranging from motor-car repairs
to consumer co-ops and cycle repairs are evident. By
grafting on skills to such an enterprising base, EcoCity
extends its reach into the community.
Ultimately, the vision of the project is to make
EcoCity in Ivory Park a self-sufficient community by
ensuring that it gets its energy from solar heating, that
an eco-bank is developed to keep resources in the
community, and that as much food as possible is
produced locally. In a consumer society and in a global
age, complete and insulated self-sufficiency is probably
unlikely. But local economic development is recognised
as a key form of poverty alleviation and in this, EcoCity
is a trail-blazer. Vishwas Satgar, a trustee, says that in
time the activists and managers currently leading the
project must exit to allow full community ownership.
|  |
“There must be autonomy to take the development
thrust forward," he says, in order to completely ground
the plan at grassroots.
|
|
