Towards water wisdom in Cape Town An exploration of potential water scarcity measures and required conditions Name: Suzanne de Groot Supervisor: Carel Dieperink Towards water wisdom in Cape Town An analysis of potential water management measures and required governance conditions UTRECHT UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF GEOSCIENCES Masters programme: Sustainable Development Track name: Earth System Governance ECTS: 30 Name: Suzanne de Groot Student number: 5880661 E-mail:
[email protected] Date: 13 September, 2019 Photographs frontpage: Theewaterskloof Dam taken by Greg Gordon in 2014 and 2018 (Gordon, 2018) 1 Summary Cape Town suffered an extreme three year drought (2015-2018) resulting in a water scarcity crisis. ‘Day zero’, the day the city would have to turn off domestic taps, was averted due to strict water conservation and crisis augmentation measures. While the drought was extreme, the water crisis is also attributed to governance failings in media and academic research. Due to climate change, similar droughts are expected to occur more frequently in the future, reducing the accessible water supply to the City of Cape Town (CCT). Persistent increase in consumption and population growth will simultaneously continue to increase the CCT’s demand for water. The CCT and the national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) have implemented various saving (e.g. regulating tariffs; consumption restrictions), buffering (e.g aquifers; reservoirs) and alternative-supply (e.g desalination; wastewater reuse) measures to reconcile supply and demand. Various institutional, physical, economic and equitability conditions need to be present to ensure that these measures are implemented effectively, fairly and sustainably. Research presenting effective water management conditions or analysing possible measures to prevent droughts is prevalent, also for CCT specifically.