Resilience of Water Supply in Practice: Experiences from the Frontline
Water Resilience in Practice is co-edited by two experienced water sector professionals and reviews resilience in water supply service delivery in the form of a series of case studies from different economic contexts – ranging from low-income and fragile states to upper-income countries. It documents real experiences and reflects on the initiatives different service providers apply to strengthen resilience in practice. It describes how service providers respond, adapt, innovate and learn on an ongoing basis, and how they endeavour to meet challenges and provide water supply to users equitably and sustainably.
In recent years climate resilience in water supply has been a new emerging paradigm. In response it is helpful to document and record some up-to-date experiences, which can be consolidated in one place. However, it is also necessary to recognise the multiple pressures that water resources face, such as: population growth, increased water demands, existing climatic variability as well as climate change. These pressures are having a profound impact on water supply service delivery. In this context service providers and development professionals must take active measures to respond to these risks.
This book is primarily addressed to organisations and practitioners involved in planning, designing, managing and financing water supply programmes in urban and rural settings.
ISBN: 9781789061611 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781789061628 (eBook)
ISBN: 9781789061635 (ePub)
Chapter 2: Building water resilience into strategy: The Cape Town drought
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Published:December 2021
Gisela Kaiser, 2021. "Building water resilience into strategy: The Cape Town drought", Resilience of Water Supply in Practice: Experiences from the Frontline, Leslie Morris-Iveson, St John Day
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Abstract
The Cape Town drought captured the world's attention at the beginning of 2018 with the announcement of Day Zero: the day that Cape Town's taps would run dry. In the eye of the storm a host of factors contributed to the panic, and rapidly falling dam levels. Politics was exceptionally conflictual, interaction between spheres of government responsible for various aspects of water supply far from perfect, with public perception and media frenzy driving a focus on matters which played a very small part in the effort not to run out of water. During this time, Cape Town was building a water strategy, specifically aimed at making Cape Town more resilient against future droughts by addressing all possible factors contributing to the drought crisis. With dams close to overflowing in 2020, the next challenge is to ensure that the strategy is implemented according to plan.