Building economic resilience to water scarcity: Cape Town’s response to a severe drought

Between 2015 and 2018, Cape Town faced an unprecedented drought that threatened a 'Day Zero' scenario where water supply to 75% of homes would be cut. To prevent economic collapse and mass unemployment, the City of Cape Town (CCT) and Western Cape Government (WCG) formed the 'Economic Water Resilience Task Team'. This partnership included entities like GreenCape, Wesgro, and the National Business Initiative to mobilize businesses, provide technical guidance on water efficiency, and coordinate messaging. Despite punitive tariff increases and severe restrictions, the region avoided a macroeconomic jobs crisis, with the Western Cape and Cape Town both seeing decreases in their 2017/18 annual unemployment rates.

• The drought starting in 2015 led to severe water restrictions enforced by the national Department of Water and Sanitation, specifically 60% for agriculture and 45% for urban users.
• To reduce demand, the City of Cape Town implemented punitive water and sanitation tariff increases for commercial and industrial users, which more than tripled between the start of 2016 and 2018.
• The 'Day Zero' scenario posed a critical risk where the city would cut normal water supply to 75% of households, forcing over one million people to queue for a daily allocation of 25 litres per person.
• The 'Economic Water Resilience Task Team' was established as a collaborative partnership including the WCG’s DEDAT and DEADP, CCT’s Enterprise & Investment and Water & Sanitation Directorates, GreenCape, Wesgro, the National Business Initiative, and the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership (EDP).
• The collaborative response is credited with avoiding a macroeconomic jobs crisis; both Cape Town and the Western Cape saw their 2017/18 annual unemployment rates decrease despite the drought.
• The 'Day Zero' narrative had mixed results: while it drove rapid behavior change and understanding of water resilience, it negatively impacted investor sentiment, the tourism industry, and trust in government.

APA

GreenCape (2019). Building economic resilience to water scarcity: Cape Town’s response to a severe drought. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190409-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-WaterA-FA-Interactive-3.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Building economic resilience to water scarcity: Cape Town’s response to a severe drought. 2019. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190409-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-WaterA-FA-Interactive-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Building economic resilience to water scarcity: Cape Town’s response to a severe drought |date=2019 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190409-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-WaterA-FA-Interactive-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencape2019building, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Building economic resilience to water scarcity: Cape Town’s response to a severe drought}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2019}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20190409-GreenCape-Resilience-Reports-WaterA-FA-Interactive-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }