The University of Cape Town has embarked on a process to document key lessons from the 2016/2017 drought in Cape Town.
The project, which consists of a series of 40 filmed interviews on measures and innovations used to prevent Day Zero when the taps were supposed to run dry, was launched on Tuesday evening.
It is aimed at sharing lessons learnt during the unprecedented drought as well as helping other cities around the world respond to and manage similar crises.
Director of the African Climate and Development Initiative at UCT Professor Mark New says the Makhanda Municipality in the Eastern Cape that is currently experiencing dire water shortages as result of the drought can learn from the Cape Town experience.
“Grahamstown is in the middle of a crisis at the moment. The Buffalo City area – that metropolitan area is also heading into a water crisis. We are hoping that we can use different aspects of this to help different decision-makers understand what the risks are. From the learning, we hope to point out the important things that so that we do not end up like Cape Town and to navigate through the shortage much more easily than Cape Town did,” says Professor New.
Watch the video below for more:
