Scotland | Integrating Smart Technologies In Community-Led Water Governance for Climate Adaptation In Cape Town, South Africa
Scottish Event Campus (SEC), United Kingdom | 4-8 October 2026
Abdulrasaq Ajadi Ishola1, TC Maramura1, T Gumbo2, and FB Mushonga3
1 Department of Public Administration and Management, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of the Free State; 2 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg; 3 Department of Economics, Nelson Mandela University
Abstract
This systematic review examines community-led water governance in Cape Town, South Africa, following the 2015-2018 ”Day Zero” drought crisis. Despite constitutional mandates for public participation, the study finds that community engagement during the crisis was largely reactive and antagonistic, characterised by ”invented” participation through protests and litigation, rather than the ”invited” collaboration envisioned by law. Key community groups, such as the Western Cape Water Caucus and the Water Crisis Coalition, emerged to challenge inequitable water tariffs and failures in service delivery. The analysis identifies significant barriers to effective community-agency collaboration, including inequitable implementation of water restrictions, institutional disregard for community input, and the enduring legacy of apartheid-era spatial and social inequalities. The paper concludes that moving beyond a top-down, technocratic governance model is essential. It recommends formalising community roles in water bylaws, reforming tariff structures for equity, and building community capacity to foster a sustainable, collaborative, and equitable water governance framework for Cape Town and other water-scarce regions.
