Factors affecting sustainable water use in South Africa : a case of Cape Town

Abstract

Cape Town's water shortages continue unabated, with most residents resorting to unsafe water sources. The continuation of the water shortages has reached crisis level, which signals challenges in the provision of clean, potable water in the city and the need for effective strategies to manage the crisis. To this end, the current study sought to establish the factors affecting sustainable water use and the causes of the failure of sustainable water use in Cape Town. The study's main aim was to ascertain the factors affecting sustainable water use in Cape Town, South Africa. The philosophy adopted in the study was pragmatism, with deductive research being the preferred approach and a descriptive case study design being used. The study's target population comprised the total number of Cape Town residents and water management officials from the municipality who were sampled through a combination of systematic and typical case purposive sampling. Research instrumentation for the study included 362 semi-structured research questionnaires and 20 key informant interviews. It was established that the most critical factors leading to the water crisis in Cape Town include the failure to invest in water services (mean of 4.36), increased water consumption arising from urbanisation (mean of 4.81) and increasing demand for water from various user sectors like agriculture, mining, and industry (4.91 mean response). The findings also suggest that such climate change-related issues as rainfall variability (mean response of 4.6) and flooding (4.7 means) have negatively contributed to Cape Town's water crisis. The significant challenges in the sustainable use of water in Cape Town were found to include the lack of knowledge on the importance of water (mean 4.18), cost burdens (4.35 mean), political and administrative bottlenecks (4.09 mean) as well as weak institutional capacities in dealing with the water crisis (mean 4.73). The study also showed that only the use of boreholes (mean 4.22) and water rationing (mean 4.46) are effective coping strategies in managing the crisis. The causes of the water crisis significantly and negatively affected the effectiveness of the coping strategies employed, and there is no significant relationship between the challenges experienced in sustainable water use and the effectiveness of the coping strategies employed in Cape Town, as established by the R2 coefficients of 0.748 and 0.068, respectively. Sustainable water use in Cape Town can be achieved through a multiplicity of strategies which include attending to water networks and pipelines (mean 3.16), using potable water (mean 3.66), fixing the water reticulation systems (mean 2.78) and enhancing accountability in water governance (mean 2.79).