The challenges associated with climate change in local governments are growing daily. One such challenge is water security, an aspect that draws us to the subject matter of climate change adaptation. This article discusses findings about institutional complexities surrounding Day Zero, a concept associated with water taps running dry because of drought conditions as aggravated by climate change in the city of Cape Town, South Africa. The thrust on institutional complexities is deliberate, as this affects how crisis situations like Day Zero were handled. The data were generated mainly from the actor–actant–network theory, events study as well as document and discourse analysis methods. The actor–actant–network theory is used widely to trace how actors (humans) and actants (non-human phenomena) interact in space and time through their networks, following narratives like Day Zero, and act on climate-related matters. The analysis applied elements of grounded theory, resulting in categories and themes emerging for discussion. The article found that narratives surrounding Day Zero were embedded in both political and administrative dilemmas and red tape. Despite these challenges, the article concludes that Day Zero remains one of the landmark learning points for climate change adaptation and water security in Cape Town, South Africa, and in other cities across the world. The article recommends that Day Zero experiences continue to be embraced positively and documented further to enhance local government climate adaptation for water security currently and into the future as well.
Urban settlements, particularly metropolitan municipalities, are important platforms in addressing the negative impacts of climate change, especially adaptation. Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects all. Two main approaches for dealing with climate change are through mitigation (the act of decreasing harmful carbon emissions) and adaptation (learning to adjust and live side by side with the changing climate). The focus of this work is on adaptation. Arcanjo (
When dealing with climate change, one area that remains contested is how it is now addressed as one of the common disasters under disaster risk reduction at the national level in South Africa. This orientation further speaks to other institutions that deal with disasters at the national, provincial and local government levels.
As this article was being finalised in June 2018, the South African government, through the national Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), had published for public comments the Climate Change Bill. The objective of the bill was to build South Africa’s effective climate change response in the context of environmentally sustainable development (DEA
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) noted that the City of Cape Town’s population had grown significantly by about 67%, from 2.4 million people in 1996 to 4 million in 2017 (PwC). This was against a background where dam storage capability rose by a mere 15% during the same period, exhibiting a potential big crisis in the water supply. The recorded increase in population aligns with recent observations by the C40 initiative that maintains that more than 50% of the global population lived in urban areas in 2016, and this number is expected to increase to more than 70% by 2050 (C40
The city had accepted it was no longer feasible to just wait for the rain. It had to start preparing for the ‘new normal’ of regular water shortages because of climate change and to stop relying solely on surface water. (n.p.)
Given the above discussion, this article focuses on teasing out how institutional complexities played out in response to the Day Zero phenomenon in Cape Town. Day Zero came about as a result of a challenge that Cape Town could encounter dry water taps at some point not so distant in future.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicates that mitigation and adaptation to climate change by both public and private sectors, including local government, rest on three pillars (OECD
The United Nations Habitat III’s New Urban Agenda mentions ‘climate change’ sixteen times (United Nations
For this article, climate change adaptation is defined through the
[
The fact that cities should adapt to climate change is no longer a matter of debate. In a recent publication by Filho et al. (
The findings from the case studies showed that the cities tend to adopt climate policies as dropped from the national level, with a limited number of them having mechanisms at the city level (Filho et al.
This article set an objective to determine institutional complexities surrounding Cape Town’s Day Zero, and how this played out regarding addressing the pending water crisis resulting from prolonged droughts and the experience of a once-in-100-years drought in 2015 as discussed earlier. The Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality map is shown in
Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality.
Critical document (Nhamo, Muchuru & Nhamo
Key documents retrieved for Day Zero information and analysis.
Spatial scale | Key documents |
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2015: Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2015: Addis Ababa Action Agenda 2015: Paris (Climate Change) Agreement 2015: Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 2017: New Urban Agenda |
|
2018: Climate Change Bill 2018 2018: Media Release – Minister Mokonyane on Western Cape Water Crisis and Day Zero 24 January 2018 |
|
2018: Premier Helen Zille’s State of the Province Address 2018 2018: Western Cape Municipal Water Security Response |
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2017: City of Cape Town Critical Water Shortages Disaster Plan |
Having collected key documents and other data, the analysis proceeded by drawing some elements from the grounded theory approach. The limited application of the grounded theory allowed the authors to determine emerging categories and, ultimately, develop key themes for further write-ups and discussions (Charmaz
From the historical data, it was found that average dam water levels from six major dams that supply water to the City of Cape Town started deteriorating in 2015 (Fourie
Dam water levels for six largest dams supplying water to Cape Town.
Major dams | Storage |
||
---|---|---|---|
Capacity when full (ML) | Percentage as of 2017 – lowest since 2014 | Percentage as of 22 June 2018 | |
130 010 | 34.1 | 65.9 | |
33 517 | 28.7 | 45.9 | |
31 767 | 58.8 | 88.4 | |
480 188 | 17.3 | 29.7 | |
164 095 | 17.9 | 36.3 | |
58 644 | 36.6 | 70.0 | |
898 221 | 206 926 | 372 483 | |
23.0 | 41.5 |
ML, million litres.
Based on statistics from
Trends in dam water levels for six largest dams supplying Cape Town (2014–June 2018).
Referring to Day Zero, LaFrance (
Fundamental principles for decision-making.
Minimising the impact of the critical water shortages on human life, dignity and property Ensuring the continuation of critical services, such as health and safety and security services, to the public Ensuring the disaster is prevented from escalating by employing appropriate mitigation measures Ensuring the effects of the disaster on the day-to-day life of the city’s residents are reduced Ensuring the protection of the city’s infrastructure Ensuring that every person in the city has access to sufficient water to drink and is able to maintain health and hygiene Ensuring appropriate measures are in place to limit and respond to outbreaks of water-borne diseases and The most vulnerable residents of the city are least able to adapt to an escalating disaster and will require prioritised support.
What then is Day Zero, one may continue to ask? Day Zero is not a static date as it is determined by a number of functional elements (Fourie
Day Zero is not synonymous with zero per cent water in the dams supplying Cape Town (Jacobs
Using 50 L of water per day ‘wisely’.
Although the City of Cape Town had the strategy to educate and raise greater awareness on the need to be water efficient and wise, LaFrance (
The Cape Town metropolitan municipality is under the political leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA). In fact, the metropolitan has been under the DA administration since 2000. However, since the August 2016 municipal elections, three more metropolitan municipalities were taken over by the DA from the national ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), across the country. This brought about strong resentment and misgivings from the ANC. The other metropolitan municipalities that were taken over by the DA in 2016 include the city of Johannesburg and the city of Tshwane (Gauteng province) and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan (Eastern Cape province). Thinking about it, this meant that the ruling party – ANC – was no longer in charge across four major metropolitan municipalities out of the eight. In terms of significance, Cape Town hosting the National Assembly (Parliament), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, has historical and symbolic value in terms of both carrying the world iconic leader’s name and being in his home province, the city of Tshwane is the capital city of South Africa hosting the Union Buildings and the city of Johannesburg is the country’s and Africa’s industrial hub. Such a loss to the ANC cannot be overemphasised and is likely to have bearings in the manner in which the ruling party treats Cape Town in the face of Day Zero.
South Africa has three spheres of government that include the national, provincial and local governments (Agyepong & Nhamo
The Western Cape Provincial Government established the Municipal Water Security Response (Fourie
Key messages on the water crisis in the province.
The effects of the current drought are of long term and can only be alleviated with 3–4 years of good rains. Water restrictions were there to stay until well into 2019. Water tariffs are likely to remain high in future. The Province and its cities were too dependent on rainfall and surface water sources and needed to diversify its supplies. Businesses need to adapt to a ‘new normal’, thus growing a business case for improved water efficiencies and own water supplies. Need a whole of society approach, with businesses as key partner (own operations, supply chains, employees).
The National DWS issued a directive to Cape Town, instructing it to institute a 40% water saving across its urbanised areas (City of Cape Town
Bornman (
During a visit to Cape Town, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane had confirmed that the bulk water supply funding was not going to be provided by the national government (Bornman
Probably the clearest institutional battles and complexities around Day Zero emerged from the media release of 24 January 2018 by the then minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, entitled ‘Western Cape Water Crisis and Day Zero’. The minister had this to say (DWS
The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, has noted several political utterances by the Premier of the Western Cape, Ms. Helen Zille, and the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Mmusi Maimane, with regards to the water crisis in the Western Cape and in particular, Cape Town. What the Premier and leader of the Democratic Alliance have sought to do is to absolve themselves of their responsibilities in the management of the water crisis through an attempt to mischievously create scapegoats and shift the blame on the seriousness of the water crisis to the national government and the Minister in particular. (p. 1)
The minister went further outlining that her department had met many times with the City of Cape Town mayor and its political leadership, as well as the provincial ministry of Local Government, Environment and Development Planning with the good intention to assist in managing the drought and its negative impacts (DWS
As part of the Defeat Day Zero campaign, Cape Town officials have created one of the best public awareness websites I have ever seen. The Cape Town website (
Despite the above observations, the Minister of Water and Sanitation remained adamant, indicating that ‘[
Our mandate for water provision and support knows no politics, and we will not be drawn into petty political squabbles while the people and economy of the Western Cape are on the verge of a possible water supply blackout. (p. 2)
The minister then concluded her media statement by indicating that additional staff had been deployed in the Western Cape province to assist with compliance measures.
In an apparent direct response to the claims that the Western Cape Government and Cape Town were not doing enough to check compliance with water use restrictions, the Western Cape Province Premier, Helen Zille, addressed Day Zero in her State of the Province Address of February 2018. The Premier indicated that ‘Day Zero would have arrived already had restrictions not been imposed, and had Cape Town residents not put in a major water savings effort’ (Western Cape Provincial Government
Key state institutions involved in Day Zero.
The DEA comes in significantly in Day Zero as it must perform environmental impact assessments for new water infrastructure and use of the oceans. Not shown in
Talking of Day Zero, the national water donation campaign programme laid bare further institutional complexities and political conflicts. Lindeque (
As indicated earlier, on 07 March 2018, the leader of the official opposition political party, Mmusi Maimane, announced that Day Zero had been defeated (Isaacs
This research used secondary data and information from publicly available online sources. The authors further adhered to conducting such research in an ethical matter related to the use of secondary data, information and sources.
Like it is commonly said, necessity brings major interventions and inventions. The City of Cape Town is now at a very advanced stage in terms of addressing climate change adaptation, especially as it relates to water security. The city created a world-class platform to educate and raise awareness not only among its residents but also across South Africa and the world. New desalination plants have mushroomed along with other underground water abstraction points. Day Zero matters are now raised in global platforms including the C40 climate initiative, and this is likely to continue as more cities across the world face similar challenges. With this experience, South Africa’s political administration has learnt to work together for the welfare of the citizens regardless of where the municipalities are located (ANC or DA run). Day Zero further showed the critical role that academic and other research institutions can play. From the Cape Town experience, bottled water came from all the corners of South Africa until the DWS raised concern with shifting the problem from one place to the other. Although this could have been politically charged, it remains a fact that the act could have resulted in creating a new water challenge in Gauteng and other areas. Whether this was politics or genuine remains another research focus outside this article.
This paper is incorporated with a list of those presented at the first National Conference on Disaster Risk Science and Management in ‘South Africa’s Response in a Changing Global environment’, 02–04 March 2015, at the Ranch Resort, Polokwane, South Africa, jointly hosted by the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Venda, South Africa and the National Disaster Management Centre (representing the Department of Cooperative Governance), South Africa. Mr Tendayi Gondo, Prof. Agnes Musyoki and Mr Edmore Kori were the faculty collaborators.
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
All authors contributed equally to this work.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.