Informality and water justice: community perspectives on water issues in Cape Town’s low-income neighbourhoods

Abstract

Cape Town's water injustices are entrenched by the mismatch between government interventions and the lived realities in many informal settlements and other low-income areas. This transdisciplinary study draws on over 300 stories from such communities, showing overwhelming frustration with the municipality's inability to address leaking pipes, faulty bills and poor sanitation. Cape Town's interventions typically rely on technical solutions that tend to ignore or even exacerbate the complex social problems on the ground. Water justice requires attention be paid to the range of everyday realities that exist in the spectrum from formal to informal settlements.

Supporting transformative climate adaptation: community-level capacity building and knowledge co-creation in South Africa

“…The findings in this paper are based upon a reflection on, and analysis of, the research process behind the Sen-seMaker research project (i.e. Enqvist et al, 2020). This research project was designed and implemented by the four authors of this paper, all academics, in collaboration with a community-based organisation (CBO).…”

“…This paper aims to explore how a transdisciplinary research approach might help to build community-level capacity for transformative adaptation. It draws on a project that sought to understand water service issues and strengthen community-based adaptation in low-income areas of Cape Town, South Africa; this project has been described in Enqvist et al (2020). The city's recent experience of a crippling drought brought home the importance of adapting to urban climate risk (Simpson, 2019), but also served as a reminder that low-income households have lacked adequate water services for decades (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019;Millington & Scheba, 2020;.…”

Sanitation Upgrading as Climate Action: Lessons for Local Government from a Community Informal Settlement Project in Cape Town

“…Although this could be explained in part by technical reasons, it was equally the lack of support and transparency from the City which hindered effective multi-level climate action in the case of Murray. As has been reported in other informal settlements in Cape Town [6], the breakdown in communication to and from the ward councillor earned the frustrations of those who rely on them to be their mouthpiece to the local municipality, and to report back to them any new developments. Furthermore, the lack of clarity regarding roles and responsibilities within the City made it difficult for the members of ISN and CORC to know where in the City to turn for assistance.…”

“…In recent decades, the world's population has become increasingly urban, with over half of the global population currently living in cities [1,2]. Associated with this rapid urbanisation is an increase in the number of citizens living in informal settlements, particularly in countries of the Global South such as Kenya [3], India [4], and South Africa [5,6]. In most informal settlements, the roll-out and maintenance of basic service infrastructure severely lags behind that of more affluent areas, and the way in which utilities and municipalities engage with the contested concept of 'informality' is complex [7][8][9].…”

“…Although significant transformation has been achieved through engagements which involve citizens, the state and various intermediaries [36], empirical evidence shows that there are also extensive constraints to multi-stakeholder projects, which have been attempted in Cape Town with varying degrees of success [6,48]. Whether it be due to a "funding bottleneck" [49] (p. 8), a lack of support from local authorities [2,20], or conflicting convictions, flawed stereotyping, and lack of trust amongst actors [50], projects that host engagement across levels often fail to succeed.…”