Living Space

 
Images of Bloemfontein

Looking down at suburban Bloemfontein, it's easy to imagine that this area was once a forest, because you can hardly see the houses between all the trees. It's in complete contrast to Koreas apartment jungle. Here, there are very few apartment blocks because there is far more living space.
Our garden, seen from above, is also lush with several large elm and stinkwood trees standing like giant green pompoms that dwarf the small silver and lime squares of the house and lawn.
Much of this greenery is watered daily using boreholes and suburban water sources perched on adjacent hillsides.
The natural landscape would have looked a lot different (see the picture above the collage).

It's possible, in some cases, that cities add a greater aboreal diversity to a landscape that might otherwise have been mere grassland. The bird life here is certainly quite extraordinary. There are virtually no small animals in the inner suburbs beyond mice, frogs, lizards and the unusual hares. On the edge of the city there are more snakes and small mammals like meerkats. But the antelope have long since been wiped out, and although springbuck can often be found on farms where the owners insure their protection.
On our farm, about 16km outside the city, we are erecting an expensive and very high game fence. The springbucks will have to be bought and trucked in. Then the fences have to be monitored for holes and traps cut by poor and hungry local folk (or poachers).

The suburban landscape above is not ideal in a Peak Oil scenario, but it is a far better option than the vast sprawls contaminated with fry pits and parking lots that cover thousands of hectares around Johannesburg, and all other major centres.
Water continues to be an increasingly rare resource in South Africa, and in a Peak Oil scenario, less water will be set aside for gardening (unless it is cultivation), and more for direct consumption.

Already, the underground water has been contaminated in many municipal areas, which means that communities have to buy bottled water or risk exposure to water borne diseases.
I lived here for 25 years, and in that period we always drank water straight out of the tap. It will be a shame if South African cities begin to follow the trends of other urban centres - who have polluted their own water sources and have to go further afield to find clean water.