Cape Town, Western Cape 

Turning pre-election pledges into service delivery is the kind of follow-through that communities deserve and demand. By the end of 2022, the City of Cape Town announced how they have made good on addressing pollution and water quality in the city’s waterways and wetlands. Collaborative efforts and embracing diverse projects had borne fruit. The emphasis now is on ongoing work, improving data collection and monitoring, network building and being transparent in reporting back to communities.

What was the problem?

Cape Town's waterways and wetlands have been under pressure for years from litter and dumping, sewage contamination and a growing toxic load in the water. This has damaged ecosystems and put more people and wildlife at health risks. The city needed to step up and ensure better management and protection of waterways and wetlands. It also needed to ensure that people could feel involved and that they remained in the loop of what the authorities are doing. The city needed to rebuild confidence that they had the knowhow and commitment to address the problems and to keep doing the work needed.

How did they fix it?

The mayor of Cape Town was under the spotlight to deliver on his election promises. This meant pressure to act and deliver after he was in the city’s top seat. His administration focused on a series of projects and campaigns and put the emphasis on improving water quality, on better monitoring in the waterways, building community partnerships and being transparent in sharing data and reporting back to the public. 

Councillor Alex Landsdowne, who heads up the waterways project in the city, set out the progress and successes in GroundUp. __Landsdowne listed 30 projects – showing the impact of a range of small and big projects. This was important for the public to follow the work already done and what is still ongoing. 

Some of the projects included setting up a Wetlands Committee focused on using scientific knowledge to track the water quality in the city’s inland waterways. The city stepped up efforts to clear alien plants that had clogged waterways and invested in more litter traps in rivers and spruits. 

The programme has worked on widening networks of people – local and international –  who are interested in restoring and protecting waterways. This means there are more people to keep tabs on how the city delivers on its clean-up promises and it exposes more people to the need to be involved in protecting the rivers and wetlands that are part of the city they call home.  

What makes it work?

Holding politicians to account

There was a follow-up on politicians’ election promises to do better on improving the state of rivers, wetlands and spruits.

Using wide-ranging local collaborations

The city officials who headed up the city’s full programme worked with local youth, private sector partners and activists and interest groups. By ensuring a wide network of people in the community are invested in improving the health of the waterways means more buy-in and more support. 

Learning from international best practices

The officials looked to international input for solutions that might also work in a Cape Town context. 

Using science and technology better

The project puts a focus on better data collection and analysis. 

Choosing transparency

The city’s programme stressed the need to make collected data and analysis available to the general public. 

Using the media

The councillor who is heading up the programme, wrote a piece in local media highlighting successes but also used the piece as a progress report for the public.  

Acknowledgements

Author: FixLocal Reporter

Additional articles/ sources:  30 things the City has done to clean up Cape Town’s vleis, rivers and wetlands  by Alex Lansdowne

 Photograph: Masixole Feni/ GroundUp