JOHANNESBURG: When delegates at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg look out from the windows of their five-star hotels in the affluent suburb of Sandton, they can see the poverty-stricken township of Alexandra, where tens of thousands of people live in shacks.

But casting their gaze inward to the summit site at the Sandton Convention Centre, they see a complex that combines a five-star hotel and a business, entertainment and shopping centre, built at a cost of $160 million.

The entrance boasts a lobby atrium that rises seven stories and is topped by a majestic dome of glass and steel. There are dozens of luxury restaurants offering the finest South African wines and seafoods. Cinemas and shops lining the gleaming sidewalks and pedestrian malls are comparable to the finest in Europe and North America.

Many of the Sandton villas rented by delegations have sprawling gardens and swimming pools with domestic servants added as a service. Only the high security walls, electric fencing and sophisticated alarm systems remind the delegates that all is not as peaceful as it looks.

The disparity between the rich and poor is one of the cardinal issues at the Earth Summit. Leading development scientists have warned that abject poverty is one of the root causes of environmental degradation. Joblessness, alienation and social breakdown is also one of the causes of the huge crime rate in Johannesburg, often described as the “crime capital of the world”.

About 8,000 police have virtually sealed off the Sandton Convention Centre, and there is a high state of nervousness. Despite the security, two Swiss delegates were robbed inside their hotel rooms, prompting the Swiss government to call on the South Africans to ensure better security. Outside the convention area, summit visitors are warned to avoid walking the streets at night.

Should delegates venture into Alexandra or any of the other black townships in and around Johannesburg, they would find hundreds of thousands of people living in corrugated iron shacks without electricity, water or sanitation systems.

Alexandra is situated on about 800 hectares of land and houses 200,000 to one million people. A true figure is not available because a growing number of illegal immigrants are pouring into the area from poor neighbouring African countries that are suffering from acute drought and spiralling economic downturns.

Squatters occupying land in Alexandra and other townships do not necessarily improve their lot in life but they come to the cities because they “expect to have a better living”, Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, executive director of the UN Centre for Human Settlements, said at the summit.

“The ultimate battle is in the cities,” says Molly O’Meara Sheehan of the Worldwatch Institute, with urban areas already housing half of humanity.

Tibaijuka, who is from Tanzania, said it would do many a delegate at the Earth Summit a lot of good in understanding the problems first hand by taking a drive through neighbouring Alexandra.—dpa