What is the initiative and where is it implemented (city or country, for example)?
Since 2018, Cape Town, a city of 3.7 million people, has been experiencing an unprecedented drought. Cape Town’s water crisis was declared a national emergency when a decline in rainfall between 2015 and 2018 resulted in the worst droughts on record. The city announced a Day Zero – a point when the municipal water supply would be shut off. Thankfully, Day Zero never came, and the city’s largest water supplier, the Theewaterskloof Dam, was able to show an increase from 11 per cent of capacity on 9 March 2018, to 100 per cent on 2 October 2020 (Global Citizen, 9 October 2020).
How was the initiative established? How was it implemented?
The drought experience in Cape Town transformed understanding of water and resource management. Lifelong learning has been fundamental in helping citizens of all ages respond to the crisis. For example, a drive led by city water officials equipped citizens with strategies to halve their water usage. These include taking shorter showers, only flushing the toilet when necessary, washing clothing less frequently, not watering the garden, and collecting clean water at natural springs in the area. In addition, the city introduced a strict limit of 50 litres of water from municipal supplies per person per day, and grey-water systems have been installed, along with large water tanks for those who can afford them (UIL, 2021).
Which stakeholders are involved in the design and/or implementation of the initiative? Which sectors do they represent?
The drought required the collective effort of all sectors and from all levels of society to produce innovative and realistic solutions to enable people to get by with less and reinforce their hope for a sustainable future. Lifelong learning is taking place in various sections of society through initial education, adult learning and education, and within diffuse learning environments such as the media, faith-based organizations and civil society (UIL, 2021).
What are the impacts of the initiative in terms of facilitating lifelong learning? Whom does it benefit and how?
More sustainable resource management requires efforts from all sectors of industry and populations to produce innovative and long-term solutions. Lifelong learning has been introduced and developed in various sections of society through initial education, adult learning and education, and within diffuse learning environments such as the media, faith-based organizations and civil society (UIL, 2021).
Cape Town city managed to avoid the worst of the water scarcity crisis by changing citizens’ habits. The municipality targeted the domestic use of water by persuading residents to adopt water-saving initiatives. The World Economic Forum (2019) reported on ways in which residents adopted the new habits and became resourceful in sourcing water. Backed up with data on water consumption, Cape Town citizens shared tips on social media, exchanged successful practices and learned how to get by on the allowed water supply.
New Water Management Devices (WMD) programmed to shut off the water supply once it reached the daily limit replaced traditional water meters. Heavy fines were introduced for households that used high volumes of water. Water tariffs were temporarily increased to discourage excessive use of water in a household. Cape Town also introduced quotas on agricultural and commercial sectors use of water to divert water to supply the city. This proved to be an unsustainable solution as it played a role in the loss of 30,000 jobs in the agricultural sector (Global Citizen, 9 October 2020). However, the agricultural water quotas did buy the city time to develop a better management plan.
As South Africa is one of the world’s driest countries, the risk of future shortages remains, and water demand continues to climb. Walters (2018) argues that droughts and water crises raise awareness of inequalities in society – of water injustice – and the Cape Town case proves that the situation should not be framed as a ‘middle-class problem’ (p. 147), nor can blame be placed on economically impoverished areas and segments of the population.
References
Global Citizen, 2020. How Cape Town went from water crisis to overflowing dams in just 2 years. [Online] Available at: www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/cape-town-water-crisis-day-zero-overflowing-dams/ [Accessed 24 November 2020].
UIL, 2021. Making lifelong learning a reality: A handbook. Hamburg, UIL (Forthcoming). Hamburg, UIL.
Walters, S., 2019. ‘The drought is my teacher’: Adult learning and education in times of climate crisis. Journal of Vocational, Adult, and Continuing Education and Training, 1, pp. 146–162. Available at: https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.14426/jovacet.v1i1.308 [Accessed 23 July 2021]
World Economic Forum, 2019. Cape Town almost ran out of water. Here's how it averted the crisis. [Online] Available at: www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/cape-town-was-90-days-away-from-running-out-of-water-heres-how-it-averted-the-crisis/ [Accessed 27 November 2020].