The metro beat out Ethekwini and Cape Town.
The R140-m OR Tambo Environmental Education and Narrative Centre (Leeuwpan Regional Park), in Wattville, impressed the panel.
The centre is located near Leeuwpan Bird Haven, a wetland where residents from nearby informal settlements have negatively influenced the wetland’s ecological character.
Green economist and sustainability consultant and Greenest Municipality Competition team leader Russel Baloyi says Ekurhuleni’s intervention in Leeuwpan, can partly be attributed to an attempt to get a grip on the “new concept of greening in a challenging environment with increasing urbanisation”.
Through this initiative, Ekurhuleni aims to rehabilitate the wetland area where the centre is situated and to maximise environmental, social, economical, educational and recreational opportunities for the surrounding communities.
“For me, by rehabilitating the wetland area, the municipality is arresting a vicious circle, whereby the poorly serviced informal settlements impact upon ecological character to the extent that the potential for the wetland to deliver ecosystem services is degraded or even lost,” says Baloyi.
