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To further develop capacity in environmental
management within the Municipality and communities in Walvis Bay, various
smaller Local Agenda 21 Projects were successfully implemented during
the period May 2001 – December 2004. These demonstration projects
were designed together with the Municipality of Walvis Bay, to visibly
express the environmental strategy and action plan as contained in the
Integrated Environmental Policy, and to increase public awareness on environmental
issues and natural resource limitations.
In line with specific Local Agenda 21 themes, these projects aimed at:
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- addressing one or more of the ten key issues as set out in the
policy,
- encouraging public, industry and NGO participation,
- promoting the re-use and conservation of natural resources,
and
emphasising global/local connectivity |
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Some of these projects focused
on designing management plans for what were considered ‘environmental
management problem areas’ for the Municipality of Walvis Bay. Other
projects were more practical in their approach to create awareness, amongst
Municipal employees and the local community, of the benefits of proper
environmental management through resource re-use and savings. In what
was considered an even bigger challenge, the Walvis Bay Local Agenda 21
Project assisted various prominent local industries in improving their
management and operational practices in order to be more environmentally
friendly.
Some of these projects were: |
Officials and staff of the Municipality
of Walvis Bay and stakeholder institution members were exposed to LA21
and sustainable development experiences at urban level by participating
in study tours to the local authorities of Hillerod and Kolding, Denmark,
Johannesburg and the City of Cape Town, South Africa. Various workshops
and courses were attended and facilitated to develop capacity in environmental
management planning, regulation and implementation and the requisite tools
and approaches.
This way a strong environmental management capacity was developed within
the Municipality of Walvis Bay, spearheaded by the Environmental Management
Section, but also affecting and influencing the plans and activities of
other municipal departments and stakeholder institutions. |
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The proposed Walvis Bay Nature Reserve
(WBNR) comprises the Walvis Bay Lagoon and the dune areas east of Walvis
Bay, the Kuiseb Delta and the Kuiseb River, south to the boundary of the
Namib-Naukluft Park (see map). The Walvis Bay Lagoon was proclaimed as
a Ramsar site in 1995 and is regarded as one of the richest coastal wetlands
in southern Africa in terms of biodiversity. In particular the birdlife
is remarkable.
The dune areas south and east of the lagoon, including the ephemeral Kuiseb
Delta, hold significant ecological and cultural values and make up an
important part of the area used by the indigenous Topnaar community.
The Cape Provincial Administration proclaimed the Walvis Bay Nature Reserve
in 1991, but following independence of the Walvis Bay enclave in 1994,
its protection was discontinued. In 1998 the Walvis Bay Municipality moved
to reinstate the proclamation of the Walvis Bay Nature Reserve, but to
date this process has not yet been finalised.
The management plan developed under the auspices of the Walvis Bay Local
Agenda 21 Project was based on an earlier management plan from 1998. The
purpose of the updated Walvis Bay Nature Reserve Management Plan is to
prescribe and document ways to ensure the proper management of the Walvis
Bay Nature Reserve, once proclaimed. The management plan includes a description
of the management approach and goals, together with a framework for decision
making and mechanisms for involving the stakeholders of the area as well
as for ensuring socio-economic sustainability of the management measures.
Incorporated in this plan are the Walvis Bay Local Agenda 21 Project Coastal
Area Study Final Report of May 2004 and the Investigation and Guidelines
for Nature Reserve Management in the Walvis Bay Municipal Area of May
2004.
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Walvis Bay is situated at the
most arid part of the hyper-arid Namibia Desert, where rain is largely
absent. The source of fresh water for the town is the Kuiseb River aquifer.
As pressures increase on this aquifer, water conservation meganisms has
become a priority. This project aimed at raising water scarcity awareness
among town residents and institutions. The youth of Walvis Bay was a targeted
for such a campaign.
A school water saving competition was launched – amounts of water
used at schools were recorded over a six month period and schools were
encouraged to introduce water savings committees and management plans.
Learners were invited to present the methods and findings of the water
saving practices implemented at their school. A prize was made available
for winning schools.
The competition was enthusiastically received and completed and is now
an annual event. |
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It is estimated that paper accounts
for about 40% of most municipal solid waste, and 80% of all office waste.
Paper is a voracious consumer of natural resources. Considered in a global
perspective and from an economic viewpoint, it made sense to launch a
Paper Reuse and Recycling Project in the Municipality of Walvis Bay. The
objective was to create awareness of natural resource savings amongst
the employees of the WBM. Secretaries, and Library and Archive Staff were
the main stakeholders in this project.
A paper collection system was initiated by placing used paper collection
bins in most of the offices in the WBM. The bins were collected by a local
recycling company and amounts of collected recycled paper were recorded
since. Posters with paper saving tips were produced and distributed to
all departments in the WBM. The project concluded by sponsoring a large
paper recycling bin, placed at the entrance of the WBM, to encourage the
general public to become part of the WBM paper recycling effort.
Overall the Paper Reuse and Recycling
Project was very well received and enthusiastically completed. A sustainable
system for collecting and recycling office waste was established. Posters
with paper savings tips and paper collection systems are still present
in most departmental secretary’s offices. Furthermore, it is evident
from the volume of paper waste collected weekly at the offices of the
Municipality that the reuse and recycling effort continued well after
completion of the project. |
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The main drive behind this project
was to respond to some of the obstacles faced in campaigning for sustainable
environmental development. These include lack of access to information
technology, lack of logistical support and facilities in which to organise,
insufficient skills and resources to tackle powerful interests and difficulty
in accessing the relevant information to inform campaigns.
The project established a Green Awareness
Corner at the Walvis Bay Multipurpose Centre (a municipally-sponsored
centre for community based activities), providing two personal computers,
bicycles as means of transportation, and information on environmental
activities and assistance in managing the corner. Sustained maintenance
of the equipment was provided for by charging a small fee to visitors
using the facility. Right from the start of the project the corner was
enthusiastically received, managed and visited.
After three years, the Green Corner is still operational
as an environmental research centre and a community based facility where
general information technology skills are developed. |
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The Green Garden was established
at the Walvis Bay Multipurpose Centre (a municipally-sponsored centre
for community based activities) to produce healthy fresh vegetables to
be used by people living with HIV/AIDS.
It was a good starting point for creating
awareness about the importance of healthy food and gardening. The first
group of HIV positive gardeners were well trained on vegetable cultivation,
and provided with seeds, manure and garden utensils. The Parks Section
of the Municipality assisted them with planting the first crops in November
2002.
The garden continues to produce crops regularly. |
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Local Agenda 21 stresses the importance
of the public participation of all groups in society in order to develop
a sustainable society. A condition for such participation is commitment
on the individual level. A precondition here is an educated understanding
of the need for action and of what should be done. Environmental Education
is therefore a basic prerequisite for all Agenda 21 work.
A reference group comprising of teachers and staff of the Municipality
decided on the production of curriculum materials in video format and
supporting materials for different age groups.
A short film, entitled “The Good and Sustainable Life in Walvis
Bay,” was produced in early 2003, with excellent collaboration from
local schools, learners, industry, workers and the Municipality. After
its local launch in Walvis Bay, the film made its wider premiere at the
21st International Conference of the Environmental Education Association
of Southern Africa in Windhoek in late June 2003. An additional grant
of 70,000 NAD was awarded to the Municipality by the Namibia Nature Foundation
for this Environmental Education project to be used for the development
of supplementary materials (in print and CD-Rom formats) for classroom
purposes.
Most of the 450 copies of the film produced, as well
as supplementary educational materials were distributed. Due to popular
demand, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation aired the film on the national
TV channel on several occasions. As a direct result of this project the
Municipality has an agreement with the National Institute for Education
Development (NIED) of Namibia to provide continued assistance with the
training of Environmental Education Diploma students. The Municipality
continue to get wide-spread enquiries regarding the Environmental Education
program implemented at Walvis Bay schools. |
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The issue of balancing the conservation
of fauna (notably the Damara Tern) and flora with recreational activities
in the Coastal Plains and Dune Belt between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund
was long run, highly charged, and unresolved despite numerous efforts.
The situation was controlled by a series of informal (tacit) agreements
that tended to break down in peak periods, leading to much acrimony and
complaint. Backing these up were various policy instruments like the Walvis
Bay Structure Plan and its adjunct Peri-Urban Policy, and land use regulations,
which were not well understood. National legislation was still under preparation.
Uncontrolled activities harm the environment, damaging the very reason
for which many tourists visit the central coast. A total ban on off-road
and recreational activities would also, however, have been detrimental
to tourism.
The objective of this Local Agenda 21 project
was to develop a workable plan for the Coastal Plain and Dune Belt Area,
which balanced conservation and recreation activities and interests. In
a process involving all conservation and recreation stakeholders, and
considering existing legal framework a management plan and recommendations
have been produced.
By the completion of the Walvis Bay
Local Agenda 21 Project, the Walvis Bay Municipal Council had approved
the recommendations of the management plan. Implementation of the said
plan was subject to the promulgation of proposed Dune Belt Management
Regulations, circulated for input, comments and subsequent approval at
that time.
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At the start of the Walvis Bay
Local Agenda 21 Project, lots of recyclable materials e.g. bottles, tins,
metals, paper, plastics were not collected for recycling. The town and
residential areas and access roads were defaced with mainly recyclable
materials discarded in streets and parks. Even though a number of formal
recyclers were operational in the town, a significant amount of recyclable
materials still ended up on the landfill site.
A need to identify, streamline, enhance and build the capacity of the
existing recycling projects were identified and the “Let’s
recycle” project was decided on. The project also focussed on increasing
public awareness about the environmental degradation caused by littering
of especially non-biodegradable litter and the benefits of recycling by
using existing systems.
Information pamphlets were distributed; additional bottle and paper banks
were made available to formal recyclers for placement in the town and
on access roads; and the Municipality made recycling stall at the landfill
site available to informal recyclers.
Exporting recyclers entered into an agreement with informal recyclers
to buy recycled waste at agreed prices. This had the effect that about
50 former jobless scavengers at the landfill site were converted to informal
recycling and earning an income.
The Let’s Recycle Project was widely considered a success and was
instrumental in establishing Walvis Bay as an environmentally friendly
town and a leader in recycling and integrated solid waste management in
Namibia.
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The discharge of wastewater into
the Walvis Bay bay area from fishing processing plants continues to be
the largest human contributor to its pollution load. Cleaner Production,
primarily as a means of reducing effluent discharge and hence pollution
load, has thus come to the forefront once again in Walvis Bay. The full
benefit of a previous CP project in Walvis Bay was not realised, mainly
due to a lack of dissemination of the findings and lack of training of
the workforce.
Cleaner Production primarily deals with three aspects of production, namely:
water consumption and how to reduce it; energy consumption and how to
control it; and product or raw material wastage. This all culminates in
a general reduction of the effluents pumped out to sea and the reduction
of other emissions such as odours and solid wastes. It is believed that
by reducing the energy and water inputs, waste too is reduced.
The first phase of this Local Agenda 21
project aimed to properly train the fishing industry workforce and its
management directly in the principles of Cleaner Production.
The second phase of the project addressed
three major environmental problems relating to the fishing industry in
Walvis Bay.
The first area to be addressed was water
and raw material wastage. Before any technical modifications were made,
the water consumption was reduced from 78 to 26litres/kg final product,
merely by implementing better housekeeping in a pilot factory. By implementing
the technical modifications the water consumption was reduced to 10litres/kg
product, which was well within the target. Encouragingly, this figure
has been successfully maintained for a number of months, with only minor
deviations due to varying production figures.
The second problem was water pollution during
the offloading of the boats carrying fish for the production of fish meal,
due to oil spilling into the sea. Inexpensive modifications were made
to a pilot factory, which largely resolved the problem,
whilst emergency plans were also established to cope with any accidental
spillages.
The third problem was air pollution
mainly caused by the odours from the fish meal production. There was also
visible air pollution due to the smoke and vapour from the dryers. A method
has been successfully demonstrated to reduce the odours and vapours from
these dryers.
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The long-term monitoring programme
is part of the Environmental Strategy & Action Plan for the Coastal
area and is based on the findings of the Intensive Monitoring Campaign
carried out in 2001/2002 and the other activities included in the Coastal
Area Study. The purpose of the long term monitoring programme is continued
monitoring of the development of the Walvis Bay Coastal Area consisting
of the Pelican Point Peninsula, the Bay and, in particular, the Lagoon.
Information acquired in this programme will provide input to future management
decisions on the coastal area.
The responsibility for the long term monitoring falls with a Coastal Area
Management Group consisting of key stakeholders. The Walvis Bay Local
Agenda 21 Project has revealed that the capacity of several Namibian organisations
will be required to handle all aspects of the long term monitoring programme.
To enhance the environmental capacity among the main local stakeholders
involved in the coastal area, the long-term monitoring programme needed
to be embedded among these and be combined with capacity development.
Extensive training was provided to several Namibians to collect, validate
and analyse data from the long-term monitoring programme and to maintain
measuring equipment used in the programme. The team was also introduced
to methods and experiences from Saldahna Bay and the Benguela Current
Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) project. A problem in ensuring sustainability
of the long-term monitoring programme was the high costs of original spare
parts. Therefore, local suppliers of batteries, bearings and anodes were
identified and the measuring systems modified accordingly.
On conclusion of the Walvis Bay Local Agenda 21 Project a major part of
the planned actions was well underway and key stakeholders involved in
the Walvis Bay coastal area showed a continued commitment to the implementation
of the Coastal Area Action Plan.
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