JOBURG NOTES

The biggest conference ever held in Africa... A meeting that produces 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide… Prehistoric remains near Summit site… A city far from water… Garbage output reveals Johannesburg contrasts…

The Biggest
* The World Summit on Sustainable Development is the biggest conference ever held in Africa, with 45,000 delegates and a cost of 50 million dollars (551 million rand), according to the Johannesburg World Summit Company (Jowsco), which is in charge of organizing the event. In 10 days, 211 official activities are to take place, including conferences, debates, cultural and artistic performances. The city of Joburg, as it is known locally, has invested six million dollars (65 million rand) to upgrade its roads and infrastructure for the Summit and purchased 200 buses to help transport the delegates.

Carbon-Free Summit
* The preparation process and launch of the Rio+10 Summit released an estimated 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but the delegates gathered in Johannesburg can "neutralize" the equivalent of one ton of carbon dioxide by donating 10 dollars towards mitigating this harmful effect of the Summit.
Such is the proposal of the Johannesburg Climate Legacy, which calculated the polluting emissions of the conference, ranging from the airplane flights of the delegates to the consumption of electricity, which in this city comes from a coal-fired power plant. At www.climatelegacy.org, individuals, groups or government delegations can calculate how much carbon dioxide was produced by their trip to South Africa, and donate to projects aimed at curbing such emissions there.

Prehistoric Remains
* Just outside Joburg is the cradle of humankind: a series of fossil sites that contain some of the oldest known human remains. The Sterkfontein and Wonder caves -- where many of the fossils are found -- are decorated with ancient stalactites and other rock formations. UNESCO declared the area a World Heritage site in 1999. Among the thousands of human and animal fossils that have been found in the area are a 3.3 million-year-old ape-man skeleton and other remains from the stone and iron ages.

Distant Water
* Joburg was built in 1886 on the richest gold-reef in the world. This explains why the population settled so far from a river or coast, in an extremely arid climate. The closest natural water source is the Vaal River. Its water is pumped 75 km uphill to supply the city.
The limited supply, however, does not prevent some of the wealthier areas of Joburg from being so green -- through irrigation -- that their gardens show up on satellite pictures as tropical rainforests. The city is one of the few in the world where tap water is clean and safe enough to drink.

Much Rubbish
* Each resident of Sandton -- the exclusive neighborhood where the World Summit on Sustainable Development is meeting -- produces 2.5 kg of waste each day, while in low-income areas and informal settlements, residents produce as little as 0.2 kg of garbage a day. The province of Gauteng, where Joburg is located, produces 80 percent of the 500,000 tons of the country's total garbage, and just five percent is recycled.