City of Cape Town Drought Planning
Planning water security for the City of Cape Town – Avoiding Day Zero
The City of Cape Town recently experienced one of the most severe drought crises on record. Zutari was appointed in 2018, at the height of the crisis when the threat of running out of water was most real, to provide technical support to the city’s bulk water branch to manage the available water supply and help ensure the city did not run out of water.
Through this appointment, Zutari helped the City of Cape Town to plan for a resilient future through an in-depth water study, and to develop a set of decision support tools for improved urban water planning, operations, and bulk water management.
Simplifying complex research data
In 2018, the City of Cape Town was in the news globally because of the prospect of Day Zero, i.e. being the first city in the world to run out of water. As a result, there was a lot of interest in the study that Zutari conducted, and the team needed to provide the results of complex technical and engineering analyses in a way that could be communicated to a range of internal and external stakeholders, including non-technical specialists and politicians. The results of the analyses were included in the development of the City of Cape Town Water Strategy that was published in April 2019.
Improving urban water planning, operations, and bulk water management
Providing water security for cities has become increasingly complex and requires new tools and a good understanding of the operation of complex systems and of challenges around decision-making amid uncertainty surrounding climate change and population growth and behaviour. Zutari is playing a critical role in supporting the City of Cape Town to become #WaterWise and improve urban water planning, operations, and bulk water management, as well as to save water.
Zutari helped the City of Cape Town to plan for a resilient future through an in-depth water study, and to develop a set of decision support tools for improved urban water planning, operations, and bulk water management.
Zutari is proud to be involved in a project that future-proofed the City of Cape Town’s water infrastructure systems
The decision support tools that were developed can be applied to other cities facing similar water security challenges and can assist cities in meeting both the United Nations’ Sustainability Goals and adapting to climate change. As a result of this study, the City of Cape Town also has a much better understanding of the risks associated with ensuring future water security and the actions needed to achieve resilience and sustainability. Key to this is open and honest communication with stakeholders.
“Zutari is proud to be involved in a project that future-proofed the City of Cape Town’s water infrastructure systems in the face of increasing risks due to climate change. We will continue to partner with forward-thinking cities who are doing their best to ensure sustainable and economic development in Africa,” says James Cullis, Zutari Technical Director.
*The Aurecon Africa business has been officially renamed Zutari as at 21 July 2020. Zutari acquired Aurecon Middle East on 20 November 2020.
