Browsing by Author "Khan, Farieda"

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    Contemporary South African environmental response : an historical and socio-political evaluation, with particular reference to Blacks
    (1990) Khan, Farieda; Ballantyne, Roy
    The impress of history has been particularly profound in the sphere of environmental perception, in that South Africans, both black and white, have had their notions of the environment shaped by the political forces of the past. Accordingly, this study is placed within the context of historical geography, as its open-ended techniques and multi-disciplinary approach is regarded as the most appropriate way of undertaking a study which crosses both historical and environmental boundaries. A contention fundamental to this study, is that South African environmental awareness and knowledge is at a fairly low level and that black environmental interest and concern in particular, ranges from apathy to outright hostility. It is further contended that the attainment of mass environmental literacy is essential for the success of the environmental movement in this country and that this in turn, is dependent on the adoption of a strategy incorporating an integrated historical, social and political perspective. Historico-political factors such as: the impact of the colonizing process; the dispossession of the indigenous peoples; the effect of racial attitudes; discriminatory land legislation and, in particular, the imposition of the apartheid system in 1948, are evaluated in terms of their effect on the development of black environmental attitudes. The culmination of these factors has led to a distortion of environmental perceptions and attitudes, as well as to the alienation of blacks from the environment. Conversely, the initially exploitative white response to the environment gradually incorporated a preservationist element, subsequently evolving into a conservation ideology which generally ignored black interests and perspectives. The policies and activities of the first black environmental organizations are detailed, in an attempt to place their achievements in historical perspective. Research in this area was conducted using primary sources. Interviews with selected environmental and mass democratic organizations in the Greater Cape Town Region were conducted. Using the techniques of the focused interview, their stance on environmental issues was established and their proposals for a future environmental strategy elicited. It was found that, while only one of the nine mass democratic organizations evaluated had an environmental policy, they were all committed to the establishment of a democratic society as well as to the concept of mass participation in environmental politics. Based on the insights gained from the historical aspects of the study, as well as an assessment of the proposals put forward during interviews, it is concluded that certain preconditions .are necessary for the successful implementation of future environmental strategies, if blacks are to become involved in environmental issues. These are: the destruction of apartheid; the establishment of a democratic state and the enhancement of individual quality of life.
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    Development of an environmental health profile: Kuisebmond, Walvis Bay, Namibia (June 1996)
    (1996) Shroyer, Margaretha Elizabeth; Khan, Farieda
    A four-step methodology was used as a research structure to investigate environmental health in Kuisebmond, a traditional black township in Walvis Bay. On completion of the Urban Environmental Profile (UEP) for Walvis Bay, to address issues in the exosystem, it was found that infrastructure services provided to Kuisebmond are of a high quality. An acceptable quality and quantity of water, electricity, sewage systems and waste removal services are supplied to residents by the Walvis Bay Municipality. The road and communication infrastructure is also acceptable and schools, health care facilities and recreational areas are available. These services appear satisfactory, however a few problems were identified: Infrastructure that was previously considered adequate in Walvis Bay has to be improved to cater for the expected population growth and to cope with current demand; Kuisebmond has a very high residential density, resulting in crowding and the increase of informal settlements. Social problems include poverty, unemployment, tuberculosis, AIDS, crime and alcoholism; Environmental hazards such as water and odour pollution are not adequately addressed and waste and litter creates breeding sites for vectors of disease. To address factors in the micro- and mesosystems, an Environmental Health Survey for Poor Communities (EHSPC) was developed and applied to Kuisebmond. On completion of the EHSPC it was found that data was lacking with regard to: family health and hygiene behaviour (of major importance as the highest quality of services provided can be contaminated through unhygienic practices and behaviour); food safety and security; the level of health education; mental health, and occupational health and safety practices, especially in informal trading areas and multipurpose homes. Information regarding residential satisfaction, how people feel about their dwellings, available services, public facilities and their neighbourhood was not available. These factors, relating to quality of life (in accordance with the WHO definition where health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease) are often overlooked in poor communities. An increased level of environmental health enjoyed by poor communities can contribute to the world strategy ''Health for All by the Year 2000". To achieve this objective environmental health has to include more than just infrastructure, pollution control and exposure standards. Tue human component, the factor that determines how the infrastructure is used, has to be included to provide data from a holistic perspective. This dissertation addressed issues concerning environmental health, which are not normally considered, such as house design, family health and hygiene behaviour, family safety, multipurpose homes and quality of life. Tue unit of evaluation was the human-environment interaction, in accordance with the ecosystemic perspective.
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    Development of an environmental health profile: Kuisebmond, Walvis Bay, Namibia (June 1996)
    (1996) Shroyer, Margaretha Elizabeth; Khan, Farieda
    A four-step methodology was used as a research structure to investigate environmental health in Kuisebmond, a traditional black township in Walvis Bay. On completion of the Urban Environmental Profile (UEP) for Walvis Bay, to address issues in the exosystem, it was found that infrastructure services provided to Kuisebmond are of a high quality. An acceptable quality and quantity of water, electricity, sewage systems and waste removal services are supplied to residents by the Walvis Bay Municipality. The road and communication infrastructure is also acceptable and schools, health care facilities and recreational areas are available. These services appear satisfactory, however a few problems were identified: Infrastructure that was previously considered adequate in Walvis Bay has to be improved to cater for the expected population growth and to cope with current demand; Kuisebmond has a very high residential density, resulting in crowding and the increase of informal settlements. Social problems include poverty, unemployment, tuberculosis, AIDS, crime and alcoholism; Environmental hazards such as water and odour pollution are not adequately addressed and waste and litter creates breeding sites for vectors of disease. To address factors in the micro- and mesosystems, an Environmental Health Survey for Poor Communities (EHSPC) was developed and applied to Kuisebmond. On completion of the EHSPC it was found that data was lacking with regard to: family health and hygiene behaviour (of major importance as the highest quality of services provided can be contaminated through unhygienic practices and behaviour); food safety and security; the level of health education; mental health, and occupational health and safety practices, especially in informal trading areas and multipurpose homes. Information regarding residential satisfaction, how people feel about their dwellings, available services, public facilities and their neighbourhood was not available. These factors, relating to quality of life (in accordance with the WHO definition where health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease) are often overlooked in poor communities. An increased level of environmental health enjoyed by poor communities can contribute to the world strategy ''Health for All by the Year 2000". To achieve this objective environmental health has to include more than just infrastructure, pollution control and exposure standards. Tue human component, the factor that determines how the infrastructure is used, has to be included to provide data from a holistic perspective. This dissertation addressed issues concerning environmental health, which are not normally considered, such as house design, family health and hygiene behaviour, family safety, multipurpose homes and quality of life. Tue unit of evaluation was the human-environment interaction, in accordance with the ecosystemic perspective.
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    An environmental impact assessment for the access road to the Mohale dam, Lesotho : a comparative analysis of the Western access road and the least cost alternative route
    (1993) Schreiner, Barbara; Khan, Farieda
    The purpose of this document is to set out a comparison of the environmental impacts of the two alternative access roads to the Mohale Dam, Lesotho: the Least Cost Alternative Route (LCAR) and the Western Access Route (WAR), and to recommend a preferred alternative for construction. The analysis and comparison is couched in a theoretical framework with regard to the process, nature and function of Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) and the problems associated with implementation of the IEM process. In this report I1 set out some of the limitations and problems associated with the EIA on the access road to the Mohale Dam (LHDA Contract No 1000). I then discuss the criteria on which a selection of a preferred alternative should be made, focussing on concepts of sustainability (including ecological sustainability), provision of basic human needs, equity and social justice, and cultural diversity and self-realisation. Within the context framed by the limitations of this EIA, the report then compares the LCAR and the WAR, and makes recommendations with regard to a preferred alternative, based on this comparison. The report also provides comments and discussion on a management and monitoring plan for Phase lB of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).
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    Healing the crippled hand: tourism and community-based tourism as sustainable forms of land use and development in Eastern Tsumkwe, Namibia
    (1997) Gaisford, Wendy; Khan, Farieda
    This dissertation followed a study undertaken by the 1996/7 Masters (Mphil) students from the Environmental and Geographical Sciences Department at the University of Cape Town, on behalf of the Namibian Programme to Combat Desertification (NAPCOD), involving the environmental impacts of emergency borehole relief in Namibia (UCT, 1997). The study area for the dissertation was visited during the course of the UCT research. Formerly eastern Bushmanland, now officially designated eastern Tsumkwe District, the area is known to the local people, the Ju/'hoansi-speaking Bushmen, as 'Nyae Nyae'. Inappropriate land uses including a reliance on pastoralism, on marginal, semi-arid lands susceptible to degradation, that exist in Namibia and the study area, were found to result in degradation of natural resources and to consequent susceptibility to drought and loss of livelihoods. During the course of the original UCT research, it was seen that the people who inhabit the Tsumkwe District area, predominantly the Ju/'hoansi but also the Herera, are no longer able to be sustained by the land as a result of inappropriate development decisions and land use strategies made, leading to 'The Crippled Hand' of the Ju/'hoansi. Economic development and diversification is perceived as necessary, with tourism proposed as a development and land use option. However., as any development needs to be particularly sensitive and well planned in the area, an environmental, including social, impact study of the effects of development plans or project, including tourism, is necessary. The aim of the dissertation was to investigate the situation regarding tourism, and particularly Community-Based Tourism, as a sustainable land use and development option in the eastern Tsumkwe district, as part of a mixed economic strategy for the area, and as an economic development strategy in Namibia as reflected in government policies and legislation. It was examined as a form of supply-led, sustainable fom1 of ecotourism, mitigating against many of its negative impacts and enhancing many of its positives, as well as a necessary component of Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM), linking conservation of natural resources and wildlife with benefits. Jt was found that although tourism and CBT have the potential to provide many benefits both direct and indirect, to both the local people and to Namibia, they do not provide the panacea for all development problems. Furthermore, a number of significant threats and constraints on a local, regional and national level were found to be impeding tourism and CBT development. As many of these a.re shared by various Community-Based (CB) programmes in other parts of Namibia, the significance of the study goes beyond that of tourism, and the study area. Threats to tourism development in the Nyae Nyae area include the Ministry of Resettlement and Rehabilitation (MLRR) Herero Repatriation Programme in the adjacent Garn area, where pastoralist Hereros from Botswana are being resettled. The decimation by the Herero of wildlife as the animals enter from Nyae Nyae into the Garn area as part of their migratory patterns is posing a threat to tourism, as is the movement of the Hereros, with their conflicting land use patterns, into the Nyae Nyae area in search of water and grazing, resulting in the degradation of natural resources on which the Ju/'hoansi, wildlife, and tourism depend. Tourism in the area has been ad hoc and uncontrolled, with the negative impacts on the people and the natural environment generally outweighing the positive. Furthermore, the sustainability criteria have not been met, in particular that of equity where the affected people have received few of the benefits while bearing most of negative impacts. Management strategies at a local level are necessary to regulate the scale and nature, and thus the negative impacts of tourism. Constraints to community management and control, including the prevention of access by outsiders, and to tourism development in the area in general, were found to include problems with community representative decision making and leadership structures, inadequate institutional capacity at the community and government level, a lack of sectoral co-ordination, lack of commitment by those involved, in both government and the community, and the lack of clearly defined rights and authority over natural resources, including land, by the affected community. Further constraints to tourism include the remoteness, relative inaccessibility, and lack of facilities, keeping the costs of tourism high and limiting numbers of visitors to the area, inadequate marketing, and a lack of tourism enterprise skills by the community. It appears that tourism should remain small scale and form part, albeit a significant one, of a mixed economy in the area, while taking care that other economic activities do not foreclose the tourism option. Sustainable social and environmental measures need to be incorporated in the planning, implementation and monitoring stages. Furthermore, tourism in the area needs to be viewed not in isolation, but holistically, and as part of a co-ordinated and integrated land use and development plan for the region. Relevant enabling policy and legal framework is necessary, as well as the sectoral cohesion, political will, commitment and capacity for implementation and enforcement.