Introduction

Abstract

The Cape Town drought captured the world’s attention at the beginning of 2018 with the announcement of Day Zero: the day that Cape Town’s taps would run dry. The way the water system had evolved was understood by very few, and failure in trust and communication meant that the public was left with a sense that water resource planning was completely absent. In the eye of the storm a host of factors contributed to the panic and rapidly falling dam levels. Cape Town is located in the Western Cape, the only one of nine provinces in South Africa governed by the official opposition. Politics was exceptionally conflictual. Interaction between spheres of government responsible for various aspects of water supply was far from perfect, with public perception and media frenzy driving a focus on matters that played a very small part in the effort not to run out of water. The combination of the anticipation of change in water storage impacted by daily rainfall and demand, and the political drama simultaneously unfolding made for an exhilarating journey.

Life in us is like the water in a river

–Henry David Thoreau