Anatomy of a Water Crisis: Climate, Demographics, Communication, Behaviour and Politics in Cape Town

Piers Sellers 2018 Prize winner Professor Mark New, director, ACDI, University of Cape Town, delivers a talk on the Cape Town water crisis at University of Leeds, Monday 19 March 2018 ABSTRACT: Cape Town has been in the news over the last few months because of its water crisis. A multi-year “drought” has progressively depleted reservoirs in the water resource system that supplies the city, nearby towns and agriculture. After the 2017 rainfall season, it became clear that – under current patterns of water use – the water resource system would fail before the start of 2018 rainfall season, and the term “Day Zero” was coined – the day at which the reservoirs would have no more extractable water. In this talk, I’ll discuss the physical nature of the drought, and the possible influence of climate change on drought risk, assessing whether the last three years are indeed the “new normal” the City is talking about. I’ll then discuss the supply-side and demand-side interventions the City instigated to postpone day zero, and the effect these had. I’ll also talk about the impacts of decisions about water allocation to agricultural sector and their potential longer term economic impacts. Finally, I’ll comment on how a political crisis within the City executive, and poor management of within the national Department of Water and Sanitation, led to a weakened governance setting that most likely exacerbated the severity of the impact of the drought.

University of Leeds

3/19/2018 3:48:31 PM