Chapter 11
Counting Down to Day Zero: Exploring
Community-Based Water Management
Strategies in Western Cape Province
Drought, South Africa (2017/2018)
Clayton Hazvinei Vhumbunu
Abstract This research explored the various community-based water conservation
and water management strategies employed in the face of the Western Cape Province
Drought that occurred in the season period of 2017/2018. Specifically, the study
analyzed the effectiveness of the water conservation strategies and assessed the implementation complexities of these strategies, as well as proffered interventions that can
be adopted to ensure that water resources are optimally used as the countdown to Day
Zero, set for 2020. In the process, findings of the study and analysis presented salient
lessons to other countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, Middle
East, and Europe that may be faced with similar natural disasters that threaten water
supply and availability. The key concepts of Community-based Water Management
(CBWM) and Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) constituted
the conceptual framework of analysis. In terms of methodology, this study made
use of questionnaires that were distributed to 29 purposively sampled respondents
comprising officials in charge of water management and disaster management in
the Western Cape Provincial Government, Western Cape district and local municipalities, and academics and/or researchers specializing in the four universities in
Western Cape. From the gathered data, it was established that although there were
notable challenges of resource constraints, conflicts of interests, infrastructure decay,
information gaps, resistance to change, retrogressive community attitudes, policy
inconsistences; community-based water management strategies assisted to complemented municipality-initiated efforts to reduce the risk of drought and mitigate the
socio-economic impact of the natural disaster, thereby pushing further the envisaged
Day Zero. The chapter recommends the strengthening of community-based water
management strategies through the involvement of government and non-state actors
as well as prioritization and alignment of community-based water management strategies with municipal, provincial, national and global frameworks and plans on disaster
management and climate change adaptation to facilitate more robust coordination
drought risk mitigation, responses, and preparedness.
C. H. Vhumbunu (B)
School of Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), 238 Mazisi Kunene
Road, Durban, South Africa
e-mail: Vhumbunuc@ukzn.ac.za; cvhumbunu@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_11
193
Counting Down to Day Zero: Exploring
Community-Based Water Management
Strategies in Western Cape Province
Drought, South Africa (2017/2018)
Clayton Hazvinei Vhumbunu
Abstract This research explored the various community-based water conservation
and water management strategies employed in the face of the Western Cape Province
Drought that occurred in the season period of 2017/2018. Specifically, the study
analyzed the effectiveness of the water conservation strategies and assessed the implementation complexities of these strategies, as well as proffered interventions that can
be adopted to ensure that water resources are optimally used as the countdown to Day
Zero, set for 2020. In the process, findings of the study and analysis presented salient
lessons to other countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, Middle
East, and Europe that may be faced with similar natural disasters that threaten water
supply and availability. The key concepts of Community-based Water Management
(CBWM) and Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) constituted
the conceptual framework of analysis. In terms of methodology, this study made
use of questionnaires that were distributed to 29 purposively sampled respondents
comprising officials in charge of water management and disaster management in
the Western Cape Provincial Government, Western Cape district and local municipalities, and academics and/or researchers specializing in the four universities in
Western Cape. From the gathered data, it was established that although there were
notable challenges of resource constraints, conflicts of interests, infrastructure decay,
information gaps, resistance to change, retrogressive community attitudes, policy
inconsistences; community-based water management strategies assisted to complemented municipality-initiated efforts to reduce the risk of drought and mitigate the
socio-economic impact of the natural disaster, thereby pushing further the envisaged
Day Zero. The chapter recommends the strengthening of community-based water
management strategies through the involvement of government and non-state actors
as well as prioritization and alignment of community-based water management strategies with municipal, provincial, national and global frameworks and plans on disaster
management and climate change adaptation to facilitate more robust coordination
drought risk mitigation, responses, and preparedness.
C. H. Vhumbunu (B)
School of Social Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), 238 Mazisi Kunene
Road, Durban, South Africa
e-mail: Vhumbunuc@ukzn.ac.za; cvhumbunu@gmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Djalante et al. (eds.), Integrated Research on Disaster Risks, Disaster Risk Reduction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55563-4_11
193