It’s almost a year ago now that Cape Town nearly ran out of Water!  Many of us who lived through the drought crisis in 2017-2018 can still recall the fear that it instilled in all Capetonians.

The fact that we averted Day Zero is remarkable – and many in the world see it as remarkable.

That’s one of the reasons why a collective of academics and practitioners will be launching the Cape Town Drought Response Learning Initiative and Film Library on Tuesday 26 March.

This brand new trans-disciplinary project is a world first and sets out to document and capture key lessons from the water shortage that came close to being a catastrophe for Cape Town.

In this way, Cape Town and other water-challenged cities around the world can be better prepared in future; because of course we are just witnessing the beginning of profound climate disturbance.

Sneak peak: Mark New and Gina Ziervogel of UCT’s African Climate and Development Initiative talk about this project.