Abstract
In the face of water related risks resulting from climate change and rapid urbanization, water resources in South African cities have increasingly come under pressure. Following the most recent drought period (2015–2018), local authorities such as the City of Cape Town are being tasked with restructuring policy to include climate change adaptation strategies to adapt more adequately and proactively to these new challenges. This paper describes an evaluation of the water governance processes required to implement Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in Cape Town—with a specific focus on the barriers to, and opportunities for, those processes related to wastewater treatment, flood risk and the pressing issue of water scarcity. The City Blueprint Approach (CBA) was selected as the indicator assessment approach for this task. The CBA is a set of diagnostic tools comprising the Trends and Pressures Framework, the City Blueprint Framework and the Governance Capacity Framework. This was applied to Cape Town based on in-depth interviews and publicly available information. The analysis revealed that smart monitoring, community knowledge and experimentation with alternative water management technologies are important when considering uncertainties and complexities in the governance of urban water challenges. We conclude that there is potential for Cape Town to transition to a water sensitive city through learning from this experimentation and by implementing WSUD strategies that address water scarcity following the shifts in governance caused by the 2015–2018 drought.
Highlights
Cities globally are more and more becoming hotspots for risk and disaster [1], mainly as a result of rapid urbanization, population growth and the impacts of climate change
The focus of this paper is on the governance capacity of water scarcity, flood risk and wastewater treatment in Cape Town, the findings of the Governance Capacity Framework (GCF) assessment for Cape Town for the three water management challenges are provided in the sections that follow
The City Blueprint assessment of Cape Town illustrates the importance of considering uncertainties and complexities in the governance processes related to urban water challenges
Summary
Cities globally are more and more becoming hotspots for risk and disaster [1], mainly as a result of rapid urbanization, population growth and the impacts of climate change. South Africa is a semi-arid country, with rainfall being seasonal and distributed unevenly [2]. It experiences a rainfall average of less than 500 mm/year (compared to a global average of 869 mm), making it the 30th driest country in the world [2,3]. (2015–2018), a country-wide drought resulted in severe water shortages in many parts of South Africa, most notably affecting the Western Cape. In early 2018, with the main storage dams predicted to decline to critically low levels, the city announced plans for “Day Zero”, that is, the stage at which water storage levels reached 13.5%, when the municipal water supply would largely be shut off
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
