From the ground(water) up: How households are reshaping post-drought urban resilience in Cape Town

Enqvist, Johan, Taylor, Anna, Healy, Adrian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5336-0147 and Greyling, Maya 2026. From the ground(water) up: How households are reshaping post-drought urban resilience in Cape Town. Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning , 107531. 10.1016/j.cities.2026.107531

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Abstract

Urban water stress is a growing problem across the world. How city authorities and urban residents respond profoundly shapes the resilience of cities. This paper examines households' perspectives on groundwater as a resource for resilience to water stress, the ways in which this shapes collective post-drought resilience in Cape Town, and the evolving governance challenges this invokes. Based on interviews with 32 residents we show that groundwater use is more complex than urban elites exploiting a shared resource. More recent users tend to dig deeper for their water, are more concerned about water supply, and live on smaller properties in less affluent neighbourhoods. These changes are part of a newly emergent relationship between residents, the state, and water resources, partly in response to a loss of trust in the city government's ability to ensure water supply. Newer users of groundwater value it not just as a way to lower their cost for municipal bill; it is also something that can strengthen their own resilience, but that requires consideration about the fairness and sustainability of relying on a common resource in a highly unequal city. This is an important complement to critical analyses of the injustices that self-interested urban elites can cause by over-exploiting common resources. As groundwater use becomes more prevalent among residents, their informal influence on Cape Town's water future will grow. This study shows why nuancing our understanding of what drives such development is critical for cities that want to mobilise residents' potential to foster urban resilience.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Geography and Planning (GEOPL) Schools > School of Social and Spatial Sciences Research Institutes & Centres > Water Research Institute (WATER)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0264-2751
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	1 September 2026
Date of Acceptance:	17 August 2026
Last Modified:	01 Sep 2026 09:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189255

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