South Africa should use urbanisation as a tool to push development and combat poverty by providing adequate housing opportunities and ensuring people have access to basic services.

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu made this statement during a seminar organised by the Department of Human Settlements in partnership with the University of South Africa under the theme: How the human settlements sector is responding to the rapid increase of urbanisation in South Africa.

The seminar provided a platform for sharing information between government officials, academics and various practitioners in the human settlements sector seeking solutions to current challenges such as rapid urbanisation and transformation of cities.

Sisulu told delegates that the country needed proper planning and management of urbanisation and related challenges such as migration of people seeking better opportunities.

“When not properly designed and managed, cities often pay the high price of negative externalities, such as congestion, contamination and wide inequalities often leading to social unrest and instability,” she said.

The minister warned that inability to plan properly would increase poverty in urban centres and see “the concomitant informality continue to be a growing challenge to the future sustainability of our human settlements”.

“The real challenges faced by urbanisation, when its positive aspects are recognised, are sustainable in the social, economic and environmental dimensions,” said Sisulu. “Sustainable urban planning and development is necessary to eliminate the causes of segregation and exclusion and support the social, spatial and economic transformation of our cities and towns.”

As part of its policies, the Department of Human Settlements places integration and sustainability of residential areas as the core of its projects. This is also reflected in the department’s Spatial Master Plan with which it seeks to tackle the problem of racially segregated communities created as part of segregation policies under apartheid.

Most of the key projects of the Department such as the N2 Gateway in Western Cape, Cosmo City in Gauteng, Zanemvula in Eastern Cape or Cornubia in Durban are integrated communities. Developments cater for various segments including Breaking New Ground, mortgage or bonds and social housing.

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South Africa needs to invest $464 billion (R6 trillion) by 2040 in the water and electricity sectors to plug its infrastructure investment gap and address economic and population growth between now and 2040.

This was revealed in a G20 Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub) report‚ covering infrastructure investment needs globally and individually for 50 countries and seven sectors.

This means that the country has to fast-track its efforts to create a conducive environment to attract investment‚ otherwise it will not be able to meet its United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Between now and 2040‚ the country’s Gross Domestic Product is predicted to increase by 40% as its population increases by only 16%.

According to the Global Infrastructure Outlook report‚ the cost of providing infrastructure to support world economic growth would be $97 trillion.

It points out that $18 trillion‚ almost 19%‚ will be unfunded if current spending trends continue.

The report warns that this is not only a major challenge for emerging countries that need to create new infrastructure‚ but also for advanced countries that have ageing systems that need to be replaced.

GI Hub chief executive Chris Heathcote said: “Outlook is a comprehensive and detailed analysis of infrastructure investment need. It gives the new country and sector spending data that governments and funding organisations have been calling for.

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Leaders in the South African waste management industry have their sights set on expanding the country’s waste-to-energy potential.

Exploring this has two significant benefits. Firstly, it provides an alternative to landfilling as the country is fast running out of landfill capacity. Secondly, this form of recycling provides a source of renewable energy which helps the country keep in line with its carbon emission reduction commitments.

Waste-to-energy (WtE) involves the physical, chemical and biological processes that give municipal waste a second life, says Jan Palm, president of the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa (IWMSA).

He explains that the most common way most municipalities deal with waste is by sending it to landfill. There the waste is compacted, covered and hopefully never seen again, he says.

Palm explains that landfilling is not desirable when considering the waste hierarchy as it poses many environmental risks if incorrectly located, poorly designed or poorly operated. “Consequently, the waste management landscape needs to explore technologies to maximise diversion from landfill, such as the WtE process,” he says. “Not only does WtE alleviate the burden on available landfill airspace, it also provides an entirely new source of energy for South Africa, which can power many homes.”

How does it work?

Municipal solid waste consists of everyday household and garden waste, commercial waste, and sometimes industrial waste. This can be recovered and separated into different parts, such as recyclable, organic and non-recyclable materials.

Municipal solid waste first enters a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) which is a physical separation process used to recover all recyclables to re-enter the market. What remains after the recyclables have been removed is the organic part and non-recyclable part of the waste.

The organic fraction, which consists mostly of food waste and garden refuse, then goes through a biological treatment process known as anaerobic digestion (AD). This involves bacteria that thrive in environments in the absence of oxygen, which break down the organic waste (much the same as what happens inside a landfill).

Instead of occurring in an open environment, this happens in closed reactors so the two by-products, biogas and digestate, can be collected. Methane gas when combined with carbon dioxide makes up the biogas. This can then be used as a source for energy (electricity and/or heat) production. The digestate can be used to produce low-grade compost or can be added to the non-recyclable part to be thermally treated.

Thermal treatment as part of the WtE process typically occurs in three different ways namely: incineration, gasification or pyrolysis.

Incineration, also known as mass burn, is the most common process which involves using the heat that is generated during incineration to turn water into steam. The steam turns a turbine to produce electricity1.

Gasification is a process that turns organic waste into syngas, a gas containing up to 60% carbon monoxide, 25 to 30% hydrogen, 5 to 15% carbon dioxide, and 0 to 5% methane. This syngas is used to produce electricity.

Pyrolysis involves heating the organic waste to speed up the decomposition process, however this occurs in the absence of oxygen so that the waste does not burn. The products of this process include syngas and bio-oil2.

Ensuring good air quality

“To ensure that air quality regulations are met, WtE plants will implement emission treatment technology followed by an emission monitoring system to ensure air quality compliance,” Palm explains. “This is normally a condition that follows the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process, which is a statutory requirement before any WtE activity starts.”

“Our country is governed by strict environmental legislation, which will determine the best route for integrated waste management, which includes WtE,” Palm adds. “By utilising WtE as one of the technologies to divert waste from landfill, we progress up the Department of Environmental Affairs’ Waste Hierarchy. Landfill, although it will always act as a safety net when all else fails, still remains the least preferred waste management option according to the hierarchy.”

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Looking at ways to expand South Africa’s pool of water resources was addressed at a round table discussion held at the end of last week in Johannesburg.

Hosted by engineering company GIBB, the discussion brought together leaders in the water sector. Some of the main discussion points raised included the option of introducing desalination plants, which are currently being explored in the City of Cape Town, as well as the reuse of wastewater by turning it into potable water.

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s infrastructure director general, Leonardo Manus, highlighted the department’s plans to pursue these alternative sources. The department said exploring alternative sources was necessary as it would help ensure water consumers shift from mainly relying on dams and reservoirs.

“Over time, cities have generated an unnatural demand of water, and as more people move to the cities there will be economic growth that comes with the introduction of industrial manufacturing,” Manus said. “This increases demand for water, meanwhile our water resources remain the same. There is therefore a definite need to re-look at how we handle our water resources and most importantly how we use water.”

Industry leaders also addressed the issue of “human behavioural change towards water”. They said this was a challenge that contributed towards water scarcity in the country as consumers did not have a sustainable mind set when using the resource.

They agreed that although new technologies are vital to increase water supply, some social problems cannot be solved with technical solutions. They agreed that public awareness campaigns are needed to inflict change in the way people respond to certain situations that result in water losses.

The roundtable discussion was also held as an initiative to encourage private sector involvement in the water industry to ensure collective solutions to water challenges.

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