THURSDAY 09 JUNE 2022 from 13:00 – 14:30 SAST/CAT
PLAAS invites you to a launch for a book titled ‘Towards the Blue-Green City: Building Urban Water Resilience’.
The speakers include:
- Ernst Conradie – Department of Religion and Theology, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
- Philip Clayton Clayton – Institute for Ecological and Civilization – California, United States.
- Larry A Swatuk – School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, University of Waterloo, Canada.
- Jenny Day – Institute for Water Research, Department of Earth Sciences, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
- Jessica Fell – Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
- Charon Büchner-Marais – Stellenbosch University Water Institute, South Africa.
- Bongani Ncube – Centre for Water and Sanitation Research, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa.
The launch will be chaired by Professor Mafaniso Hara from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, in South Africa.
Over the last several years, major cities such as Cape Town, Sao Paulo and Barcelona have faced ‘Day Zero’ scenarios, characterised by the very real possibility of running out of water. As the world continues its urbanising trend, there are important lessons to be learned from these water crises: why did they happen, what was the impact, and what was the response? These lessons will be central to tackling future urban-water-related risks and vulnerabilities especially given the uncertainties created by increased climate change and variability.
At the same time, COVID-19 has exacerbated many water-related impacts brought on by a changing climate and increasing urbanisation: water-related risks and vulnerabilities vary in relation to demographic factors such as race, class, age and gender. Similarly, densification in the face of inadequate service provision, including access to water and sanitation, results in inefficient responses. The coronavirus pandemic reveals how existing systems of service delivery reduce the risk of water insecurity for some but heighten it for others. However, this pandemic provides the opportunity and the incentive to build back better, ensuring a form of urban water resilience for the benefit of all.
In the book ‘Towards the Blue-Green City: Building Urban Water Resilience’, a diverse set of scholars reflect on the causes and consequences of Cape Town’s near ‘Day Zero’ event and the lessons to be learned for cities around the world.
The book can be downloaded here: https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/Towards%20a%20blue%20green%20city_final%20web.pdf
Tune in on Thursday 09 June 2022 at:
13:00 South African Standard Time (SAST)/Central African Time (CAT)
12:00 West African Time (WAT)
11:00 Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) (Ghana)
14:00 East African Time (EAT) (Tanzania)
Register here: https://bit.ly/3m9OpyM
