Dr Tafadzwa Clementine Maramura

The water governance system in Cape Town is defective, as evidenced by the city's routine water supply shortage. This defect resulted from rapid climate change and related challenges confronting the water governance system in the city.

Cape Town is a South African coastal city with a Mediterranean-like climate, causing hot and dry summers. Over the years, the city has experienced rapid urbanisation and recurrent droughts, the most striking between 2015 and 2018. This particular drought resulted in an acute water shortage and rendered the water governance system in the city ineffective, paralysed, and requiring overhauling.

This system’s ineffectiveness has led to widespread dissatisfaction among residents of the city and South Africans in general. This dissatisfaction is rooted in the 2018 Day Zero water crisis, which triggered strong community involvement and awareness around water conservation. Given the similarities in the Cape Town situation and other urban centres across Africa, such as Lagos in Nigeria, Lomé in Togo, Praia in Cape Verde, etc., there is an emerging trend of cities assuming a new status of smartness.

Smart cities are technology-driven spaces that provide an innovative approach to solving social problems while promoting urban resilience towards rapid climate change. Especially in water governance, smart technologies offer innovative solutions for enhancing a community-driven water governance system. This is because the community plays a significant role in the sustainable management of water resources.

With the integration of smart technologies, real-time data for monitoring, management, and early warning systems on water supply is provided. Leveraging smart technologies can help promote smart metering, address water scarcity, improve decision-making in water distribution, and strengthen community involvement in achieving climate adaptation targets.

More so, it promises to enhance water safety through water treatment technologies like passive chlorination and ultraviolet disinfection, as Cape Town relies solely on surface water sources. Equally, in the city, integrating smart technology in water governance promises to be without much difficulty. This is given that the city is already embarking on innovative solutions to addressing water scarcity, such as desalination and recycling projects. These moves encompass sustainable water management techniques such as water use reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery. These techniques are vital to addressing water scarcity and climate change while protecting the urban environment.

Dr Tafadzwa Maramura’s FAR-LeaF II research, “Integrating Smart Technologies in Community-Led Water Governance for Climate Adaptation in Cape Town, South Africa”, examines the possibility of integrating smart technologies with the water governance systems of the city, with the hope that this will promote a community-led water governance system that will enhance the climate resilience of the city towards sustainable water supply.

In pursuit of this objective, the study examines the current state of water governance, explores existing and potential smart technology applications, and assesses their impact on community-led water resilience. Using a mixed-methods approach combining desktop research, key informant interviews, surveys, and focus group discussions with community members, the study aims to advance existing water governance initiatives by incorporating smart metering, digital twin technology, and AI-driven solutions.

The research focuses on enhancing community participation and sustainable water management practices while contributing to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achievements. The findings will provide a framework for implementing a community-led smart technology adoption and implementation framework in water governance systems, potentially benefiting other regions facing similar water scarcity challenges.

Dr Maramura’s study complements the existing use of technology in advancing water governance initiatives such as smart metering, water purification, improving water supply efficiency, and community-led water governance by integrating smart technology. The existing water recycling infrastructure in Cape Town requires further technological integration to improve process efficiency while ensuring safe reclaimed water production.

When integrated into water governance systems in Cape Town, these technologies promise to make the city climate change resilient. In addition, smart technologies promote the entrenchment of social justice through community participation.. With the potential of smart technologies to provide unhindered access to active participation, existing inequality and marginalisation among people in the city can be eliminated, while promoting responsible water usage.

Dr Maramura’s study will focus on Mitchells Plain as the primary site for data collection. Mitchell’s Plain is a reasonably large community with diverse residents, including formal and informal housing, middle– and low-income earners, and established community organisations. It is considered appropriate for this study given its diversity and history of water management challenges and existing community-led water conservation initiative in Cape Town. Specific target communities within Mitchell’s Plain are Tafelsig, Westridge, and Lentegeur.

Dr. Tafadzwa C. Maramura is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Management at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Public Management and Water Governance from North-West University, which she completed in two years, graduating as Valedictorian. She also holds a Master of Public Policy (Valedictorian), an Honours degree in Public Policy and Administration (Cum Laude), and a Bachelor of Social Science (Cum Laude) from the University of Fort Hare. Her research specialisations include water governance, sustainable service delivery, smart technologies in public management, and inclusive policy reform. Her current research focuses on integrating smart technologies into community-led water governance systems to support climate adaptation in South Africa. Dr. Maramura is a Y2-rated researcher by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and serves as a Catalyst for the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS). She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and five book chapters and has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences.