Abstract
London and Cape Town are joined through a long history of colonialism and imperialism. Cape Town’s built environment reflects the habits and sensibilities of its European origins. Today, the two cities are joined by challenges of growth and decay, of changing climates and limited resources. Are they equipped with the appropriate tools to build urban water resilience? The authors set the actions taken to achieve water security within the context of what (Zeitoun et al., Global Environmental Change 39:143–154, 2016) describe as reductionist and integrative approaches. The chapter shows that reductionist and integrative approaches operate side-by-side in both cities. It argues that for London and Cape Town to ensure a human security-centred approach to water management, integrative thinking must supplant the dominant, reductionist approach, although where megacities are concerned, it is unlikely that large-scale water transfer schemes will ever be fully displaced by closed-loop approaches to water access, use and management.
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Morales, I., Swatuk, L. (2022). Challenges for Urban Water Security in London and Cape Town. In: Swatuk, L., Cash, C. (eds) The Political Economy of Urban Water Security under Climate Change . International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08108-8_3
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