29 July 2026 | Story Niémah Davids. Photos Lerato Maduna.
“Thousands have lived without love – not one without water.” – WH Auden.
The fifth instalment of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Collective Conversations on Science for Society series, held on 27 July 2026, explored the urgent need to rethink water and waste management as South Africa grapples with deteriorating water <a href="https://absafricatv9491.live-website.com/lagos-bets-on-rail-waterfronts-digital-infrastructure-to-make-tourism-investment-ready/” title=”Lagos bets on rail, waterfronts, digital infrastructure to make tourism investment-ready”>infrastructure, climate change and increasing urban demand. The latest event in this series was titled: “Rethinking water and waste in future cities” and was held in the new Neville Alexander Building. Launched in April 2025, the dialogue brings together voices and thought leaders from multiple sectors and disciplines to engage on pressing societal challenges.
The dialogue came shortly after President Cyril Ramaphosa released the national Water Action Plan – government’s strategy that focuses on fixing failing local water infrastructure through investment, regulatory reform and tackling corruption in the sector.
The three panellists who contributed to the discussion included the director of UCT’s Future Water Institute, Associate Professor Kirsty Carden; Dr Craig Tanyanyiwa from Water Footprint Implementation, which empowers organisations to measure, understand and offset their water consumption; and Tamsin Faragher from the City of Cape Town (CoCT).
In his welcome address, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation, Professor Thokozani Majozi, said it’s easy for scholars at a research-intensive university like UCT to gravitate towards what they know: conducting research in their laboratories. But where does that work lead? What is the impact and how does it benefit society?
“If you look particularly at the vision of this institution, Vision 2030, which is really the foundation of Strategy 2030, those two documents talk very strongly about the impact this institution has on society,” Professor Majozi said. “We should create a huge space for asking: How does what we do in our little spaces affect the broader communities that surround us?”
He said scholars’ research should seek to answer a fundamental question: How do we change the life of the man down the street? And this is exactly what the series aims to do, by including voices from different sectors of society.
South Africa is a water-scarce country – and it’s likely to get worse. According to the latest blue and green drop water reports on the state of water in the country, 80% of municipal water infrastructure is in poor or critical condition. And the water crisis is escalating into a severe infrastructural and socioeconomic threat.
“So, while more people have access to a tap, water often doesn’t come out of it.”
Associate Professor Carden said while the average national access to basic levels of water services infrastructure has increased by 90% from 1994 to date, it has “pretty much stagnated” now. Alarmingly, she added, service reliability has decreased sharply during the same period.
“So, while more people have access to a tap, water often doesn’t come out of it or it’s not safe to drink,” Carden said.
She then proposed three shifts and provocations:
- Can we collectively adopt water-sensitive strategies toward long-term resilience?
- Can we agree that water and waste should be given a second chance?
- Can we utilise water-based solutions to address public health and environmental impacts and support sustainable livelihoods?
Carden advised that cities be more intentional about the concept of water-sensitive design and consider implementing blue-green infrastructure, particularly sponge cities (water-sensitive cities). With this concept, she explained, water is held in the ground and is not prevented from getting there by hardened surfaces.
Water-sensitive cities also incorporate more green infrastructure, which builds resilience by increasing the capacity to store water in aquifers while also creating more attractive cities. But getting this right requires adopting diversifiedable drainage systems
“The importance of considering water management as part of a much larger system that comprises people, their aspirations and beliefs, ecosystems, governance processes, politics and economics cannot be overstated,” she said. “Social challenges cannot be solved by engineering solutions alone, and survival demands adaptation.”
During his presentation, Dr Tanyanyiwa focused on some elements of the national Water Action Plan: infrastructure, investment and the private sector.
“The country already agrees that the private sector actually benefits most from our water and they have a role to play. So, we’re creating different mechanisms to make it attractive for them,” he said.
But why would businesses be interested? The reasons are twofold. Tanyanyiwa said the private sector faces great risk when water is scarce. And it was proven during the 2017/2018 Cape Town drought when many corporates desperately worked to address the short-term effects. In addition, he added, some regulations also require large corporates, especially those who export to Europe, to “do something about their water” consumption.
“Europe won’t take your goods if you’re not being water sensitive,” he said.
Corporate involvement could take various forms, including establishing collective funds – a concept initially created by corporate entities in partnership with the government of Kenya. It requires that businesses make capital injections that can be used to fund water basins. A second option, he said, is known as water stewardship. This process allows corporate organisations to contribute to water basins using verifiable projects “that are not greenwashing”.
“Maybe beyond asking them to be nice and to contribute, we do need some policy that actually makes them pay because most of the times they are the ones that [water] pollute. Right now, we’re still asking nicely. Maybe in the future we need to be [harsher],” he said.
When Faragher delivered her presentation, she used part of it to take the audience back to a time Capetonians would rather forget – the 2017/2018 drought. She said people were using differenthad no idea how to answer residents’ questions, which included whether they could use seawater to flush their toilets
What ensued, Faragher said, was a detailed investigation on alternativeguidelines for households, which ultimately led to establishing the water quality guidelines
“The water quality guidelines tell you what you can and can’t do. That’s what guides you towards a water-fit, fit-for-purpose approach, which prevents you from putting potable water down the toilet. In reality, people were doing all sorts of things [during the drought],” she said. “I believe the government has a responsibility to be enabling. We know people are doing this. How do we help them to do it in a responsible way that is not going to trash the city’s network?”
Faragher concluded by stressing that the work with and on water does not rest with water and sanitation departments alone – it requires a collective effort from all sectors of society.
“Water features in all of our work and there is a role for all of us to play at some point.”
“Whether you are a household and have a bucket in the shower; whether you’ve got a greywater system in your garden … water features in all of our work and there is a role for all of us to play at some point,” she said.
A panel discussion followed the three presentations and talks centred around various sub-topics on water including:
- Why public sector involvement is important – to secure a water supply, especially in adverse situations like a drought. By doing this, Tanyanyiwa said, it will protect the business’s bottom line.
- The dangers of using greywater. Carden said greywater turns septic quicky and contains high concentrations of pathogens. However, it is safe for garden use.
- Climate change and global political volatility mean that municipalities cannot solely rely on water as an income stream. Faragher said municipalities must closely survey and diversify their business models.
- The panel concluded that nurturing water-sensitive cities involves all sectors of society.
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