Conservation for a Water-Wise Future
Summary
The City of Cape Town successfully dealt with a water crisis and effectively avoided a 'Day Zero' water shut-off scenario partly by organizing a holistic, cohesive, and well-communicated water conservation campaign. This campaign resulted in unprecedented water savings and inspired the city's transition for a water-sensitive future.
Although the City of Cape Town (CoCT) faced water stress historically, the most recent push toward extreme water conservation resulted directly from the 2015-2018 drought. This drought threatened a 'Day Zero' scenario where the city would officially have to shut off taps, and residents would have to queue for water. Based on historical rainfall records, Cape Town's drought was a 1-in-590 year event for which the city had not prepared (City of Cape Town, 2020). Cape Town's dependence on surface water, sourced from six reservoirs and comprising over 95% of the city's total supply, made its water supply system particularly vulnerable to drought (Schreiber, 2019; Ziervogel, 2019). Furthermore, the crisis was exacerbated by degraded infrastructure in the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS), which was overrun by al ien vegetation, limiting the effectiveness of the pumps and canals needed for water harvesting (City of Cape Town, 2020).
The main authority for water management in South Africa, the national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), is responsible for policy development, implementation, regulation, monitoring, enforcement, and administration. Although the country's water resources are managed at the catchment level by regional institutions, such as the WCWSS in Cape Town's case, the DWS maintains full regulatory control, ownership of, and right to allocate all water within the country as it sees fit. 1 Due to the perceived failure of the national DWS to adequately maintain the WCWSS' infrastructure and water supply (and despite not having legal ownership of the water resource), the CoCT announced in 2017 that it would assume full responsibility for addressing the water crisis instead of relying on the national government to do so (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019).
Intervention
As the 'Day Zero' situation approached, Cape Town was propelled into the global spotlight - one of the first major cities to almost run out of water. The city government quickly undertook several efforts to make water conservation integral to Capetonian culture and everyday life and, ultimately, avoided the 'Day Zero' scenario. The city began organizing conservation efforts to create a holistic, city-wide plan to conserve water by mobilizing expert task forces (including World Bank experts and others from different areas and sectors), hiring a private communications firm, and fostering partnerships with NGOs and private institutions (Ziervogel, 2019). The city published its 'Critical Water Shortages Disaster Plan' in October 2017 to outline three tactical phases for crisis response. This plan focused on curbing domestic water use, which accounts for 70% of total water use in the municipality (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019; Ziervogel, 2019).
The city undertook a multi-pronged initiative to reduce domestic water use and waste: implementing aggressive pressure management in its water supply network; cracking down on 'water wasters' via financial mechanisms (and, when necessary, forcibly installed water management devices [WMDs] to shut off the supply in households that remained non-compliant); implementing readily scalable water restrictions (which were already in place before the crisis, and scaled up as necessary); and creating a communications campaign centered around innovative digital resources to promote public awareness and behavior change to foster a culture of water conservation (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019; Schreiber, 2019; Ziervogel, 2019). Notably, part of what made such an effective crisis response possible was the long-standing mechanisms that were in place well before the historic drought: a long-running demand management program, organized portfolio and project management systems already in place that allowed for rapid procurement processes , and the municipality's ongoing relations-building efforts with other regional water users (Schreiber, 2019; Ziervogel, 2018; Ziervogel, 2019).
Challenges
There were negative outcomes associated with the policy as well. Instituting penalties and WMDs for high-volume water users was controversial due to the financial implications of the decision. Due to the block tariff system, high-volume users paid more than other users, meaning that the 10 megaliters of water saved per day (less than 2% of the total water supply) would result in a 40% loss in revenues for the city?s water utility at a time when new investments were critical for organizing drought response (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019). Ultimately, Cape Town's water conservation efforts informed the creation of the city's new Our Shared Water Future: Cape Town's Water Strategy , published in 2020, emphasizing CoCT's commitment to becoming a water-sensitive city.
As per the strategy, the 2015-2018 crisis encouraged ongoing efforts to diversify water supply to foster resilience to droughts and climate change. Although rain-dependent surface water will still supply more than 75% of Cape Town's water in 10 years' time, the city has also committed to increasing available supply by more than 300 million liters per day over the next 10 years through diversified sources (e.g., desalination, reclaimed water, and groundwater). More generally, the strategy outlines Cape Town?s plans to integrate all water (including stormwater, blackwater, and graywater) into a single holistic paradigm by reassigning responsibilities within municipal departments and making water conservation an ongoing part of everyday life for all Capetonians (City of Cape Town, 2020).
Outcomes
When coupled with the city's immediate crisis response, these efforts were ultimately enough to avoid a 'Day Zero' disaster. In 2018, the CoCT postponed 'Day Zero' indefinitely. In addition to avoiding disaster, the water conservation policy implemented during the drought had other positive outcomes, such as improved governance and improved society-citizen relations. Furthermore, conservation became a significant part of daily life, and water usage was cut by 60% from 2015 levels, reduced from 1.2 billion to 478 million liters per day, with each resident consuming little more than 50 liters per day (Schreiber, 2019). The average daily reduction of 101 million liters used per day included 66 million liters of water saved as a direct result of aggressive pressure management, 11 million liters conserved due to the forced adoption of WMDs in 'wasteful' households, and 24 million liters saved due to consumers' behavioral changes (largely a result of the communications campaign) (Schreiber, 2019).
References
Conservation for a Water-Wise Future
Summary
The City of Cape Town successfully dealt with a water crisis and effectively avoided a 'Day Zero' water shut-off scenario partly by organizing a holistic, cohesive, and well-communicated water conservation campaign. This campaign resulted in unprecedented water savings and inspired the city's transition for a water-sensitive future.
Although the City of Cape Town (CoCT) faced water stress historically, the most recent push toward extreme water conservation resulted directly from the 2015-2018 drought. This drought threatened a 'Day Zero' scenario where the city would officially have to shut off taps, and residents would have to queue for water. Based on historical rainfall records, Cape Town's drought was a 1-in-590 year event for which the city had not prepared (City of Cape Town, 2020). Cape Town's dependence on surface water, sourced from six reservoirs and comprising over 95% of the city's total supply, made its water supply system particularly vulnerable to drought (Schreiber, 2019; Ziervogel, 2019). Furthermore, the crisis was exacerbated by degraded infrastructure in the Western Cape Water Supply System (WCWSS), which was overrun by al ien vegetation, limiting the effectiveness of the pumps and canals needed for water harvesting (City of Cape Town, 2020).
The main authority for water management in South Africa, the national Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), is responsible for policy development, implementation, regulation, monitoring, enforcement, and administration. Although the country's water resources are managed at the catchment level by regional institutions, such as the WCWSS in Cape Town's case, the DWS maintains full regulatory control, ownership of, and right to allocate all water within the country as it sees fit. 1 Due to the perceived failure of the national DWS to adequately maintain the WCWSS' infrastructure and water supply (and despite not having legal ownership of the water resource), the CoCT announced in 2017 that it would assume full responsibility for addressing the water crisis instead of relying on the national government to do so (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019).
Issue
Intervention
As the 'Day Zero' situation approached, Cape Town was propelled into the global spotlight - one of the first major cities to almost run out of water. The city government quickly undertook several efforts to make water conservation integral to Capetonian culture and everyday life and, ultimately, avoided the 'Day Zero' scenario. The city began organizing conservation efforts to create a holistic, city-wide plan to conserve water by mobilizing expert task forces (including World Bank experts and others from different areas and sectors), hiring a private communications firm, and fostering partnerships with NGOs and private institutions (Ziervogel, 2019). The city published its 'Critical Water Shortages Disaster Plan' in October 2017 to outline three tactical phases for crisis response. This plan focused on curbing domestic water use, which accounts for 70% of total water use in the municipality (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019; Ziervogel, 2019).
The city undertook a multi-pronged initiative to reduce domestic water use and waste: implementing aggressive pressure management in its water supply network; cracking down on 'water wasters' via financial mechanisms (and, when necessary, forcibly installed water management devices [WMDs] to shut off the supply in households that remained non-compliant); implementing readily scalable water restrictions (which were already in place before the crisis, and scaled up as necessary); and creating a communications campaign centered around innovative digital resources to promote public awareness and behavior change to foster a culture of water conservation (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019; Schreiber, 2019; Ziervogel, 2019). Notably, part of what made such an effective crisis response possible was the long-standing mechanisms that were in place well before the historic drought: a long-running demand management program, organized portfolio and project management systems already in place that allowed for rapid procurement processes , and the municipality's ongoing relations-building efforts with other regional water users (Schreiber, 2019; Ziervogel, 2018; Ziervogel, 2019).
Challenges
There were negative outcomes associated with the policy as well. Instituting penalties and WMDs for high-volume water users was controversial due to the financial implications of the decision. Due to the block tariff system, high-volume users paid more than other users, meaning that the 10 megaliters of water saved per day (less than 2% of the total water supply) would result in a 40% loss in revenues for the city?s water utility at a time when new investments were critical for organizing drought response (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019). Ultimately, Cape Town's water conservation efforts informed the creation of the city's new Our Shared Water Future: Cape Town's Water Strategy , published in 2020, emphasizing CoCT's commitment to becoming a water-sensitive city.
As per the strategy, the 2015-2018 crisis encouraged ongoing efforts to diversify water supply to foster resilience to droughts and climate change. Although rain-dependent surface water will still supply more than 75% of Cape Town's water in 10 years' time, the city has also committed to increasing available supply by more than 300 million liters per day over the next 10 years through diversified sources (e.g., desalination, reclaimed water, and groundwater). More generally, the strategy outlines Cape Town?s plans to integrate all water (including stormwater, blackwater, and graywater) into a single holistic paradigm by reassigning responsibilities within municipal departments and making water conservation an ongoing part of everyday life for all Capetonians (City of Cape Town, 2020).
Outcomes
When coupled with the city's immediate crisis response, these efforts were ultimately enough to avoid a 'Day Zero' disaster. In 2018, the CoCT postponed 'Day Zero' indefinitely. In addition to avoiding disaster, the water conservation policy implemented during the drought had other positive outcomes, such as improved governance and improved society-citizen relations. Furthermore, conservation became a significant part of daily life, and water usage was cut by 60% from 2015 levels, reduced from 1.2 billion to 478 million liters per day, with each resident consuming little more than 50 liters per day (Schreiber, 2019). The average daily reduction of 101 million liters used per day included 66 million liters of water saved as a direct result of aggressive pressure management, 11 million liters conserved due to the forced adoption of WMDs in 'wasteful' households, and 24 million liters saved due to consumers' behavioral changes (largely a result of the communications campaign) (Schreiber, 2019).
Issues |
|---|
Water Scarcity and Access |
Solutions |
|---|
Sustainable Water Supply & Climate Solutions |
References
City of Cape Town. (2020). Our Shared Water Future: Cape Town's Water Strategy .
Enqvist, J. P., & Ziervogel, G. (2019). Water governance and justice in Cape Town: An overview. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water , 6 (4), e1354.
Schreiber, L. (2019). Keeping the taps running: How Cape Town averted ?Day Zero,? 2017-2018. Innovation for Successful Societies (Princeton University) .
Ziervogel, G. (2018). What the Cape Town drought taught us: Four focus areas for local governments.
Ziervogel, G. (2019). Unpacking the Cape Town drought: Lessons learned. Cities Support Programme.