Africa Geographic February 2007 [antikvár]

¦ ."Vi ^ ' ^ founder's note Liii'. CC The environmental health of ecological systems is at the heart of local and central government responsibility ^ ^ Along the coast, just to the north of Cape Town's CBD, lies a significant wetland system known as Rietvlei. It is important for its marine life, saltmarsh vegetation and birdlife, as well as for its recreational value to Capetonians, who have constructed an ever-tightening girdle of housing developments on its periphery. Over the years, pollution of the system has increased exponentially and, during the Christmas period just past, it seems that the Altering capacity of Rietvlei finally moved beyond the point of no return. Our daily newspapers carried graphic front-page photographs of the result: rafts of dead fish that had succumbed in countless thousands. Rietvlei is an environmental disaster of note, but many other river and wetland systems in and around Cape Town are in an even worse state, in some instances being little more than open sewers. But local government seems even less concerned about these waterways, perhaps for the reason that, unlike Rietvlei, none flows through middle- to upper-income suburbs. Cape Town is rightly acclaimed as being one of the most beautiful cities in the world and much is made of our grande dame, Table Mountain, which, with her relatives, forms the rocky spine of the Cape Peninsula. It is a range that, together with its unparalleled botanical wealth, gives the city the added status of having a national park at its core. This said, the environmental management of the city and its suburbs - the leafy, mountain-hugging ones as well as those that form a poverty-plagued, treeless sprawl across the Cape Flats - leaves much to be desired. Yes, the city faces the multiple problems of any developing part of the world -poverty, public health, education, housing, safety and security; accordingly, local environmental dilemmas such as the quality of river and wetland systems may well seem relatively insignificant. Not so, the conservationist lobby would correctly argue, for irrespective of how land is used, the environmental health of ecological systems is at the heart of local and central government responsibility. All benefits from development will be short lived unless people can stay in clean, safe surroundings. Cape Town is no exception and without due diligence could face a short, steep and very slippery slope in the slide towards becoming a noisome, ugly and unkempt dump that no one in their right minds would want to visit. If the local and regional governments think this is an exaggeration, they should read Lizzie Williams' article on Nigeria (see 'From Riches to Rags', page 32). Lagos, Nigeria's erstwhile capital and Africa's most populous city, may never have been in the same beauty league as Cape Town, but it surely is an example of how ghastly a city can become when corruption, no good governance to speak of and rampant greed dominate all aspects of society. And while Cape Town's river systems are not the Niger Delta (where, including the 2006 Boxing Day disaster, well over 1000 lives have been lost in recent years from oil-pipeline explosions and fires), their condition is symptomatic of the same carelessness and incompetence displayed by so many African governments that, for all their rhetoric to the contrary, never really act for the welfare of their people and the places in which they live. About our magazine___ AlricQ Ceographic is editorialiy and financially independent. It enjoys the support and endorsement of several non-government organisations, but it is not affiliated in any way to tfiese bodies or to any other publishing, environmental or political interest group. Africa Ceographic strives to foster an awareness of wildlife, conservation, eco-travel, indigenous cultures and the general environment. It consistently advocates the wisest use of natural resources in a manner that involves and is of real benefit to the people of Africa. Africa Ceographic is published 11 times a year. !TJ