Check out the city's sustainability plans
URBAN sustainability and managing resources have become priorities for the City of Cape Town, which has been subjected to drought, storms, flooding and wildfires, all related to climate change.
The city’s Organisational Development Transformation Plan is concerned with “resource efficiency, security and changing the way we plan and work to make these goals a reality”, said mayor Patricia De Lille.
It yesterday hosted an exhibition on some of the projects it conceived to weave sound environmental practices into service delivery to residents.
“Sustainability refers to having enough for everyone forever; being able to cater for the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.
“Sustainability is not a nice-tohave. It is the new normal and we must factor this into all our decisions – at government and personal level.”
In the Mayor’s Portfolio of Urban Sustainability guide, 66 projects have been profiled, which include the biological control of invasive weeds, the Wallacedene green taxi rank, the diarrhoeal disease season campaign, the Kraaifontein Integrated Waste Management Facility, the Pelican Park housing development and the Shark Spotters Programme.
De Lille revealed that future projects include the small-scale embedded generation project, the Healthy Living Lifestyle Project, the thermal ceilings retrofitting project, energy efficiency in municipal buildings, the MyCiTi electric buses, the Mfuleni urban node and urban park, and the recycling of water and effluent reuse.
“Every person should have access to opportunity, progress, social equality, dignity and respect – these need to be met in a manner which does not deplete Cape Town’s natural capital.”