Cape Town
Geordin Hill-Lewis Executive MayorThe City of Cape Town, working with the C40 Cities Finance Facility, will develop a city-wide project for flood resilience and improved river management. This project focuses on three sub-catchments of the Diep Southern River, the Big and Little Lotus Rivers, and the Elsieskraal River. The rivers flow through a wide variety of areas – informal settlements, industrial zones, and horticultural areas. This project will improve the conditions of public open spaces and river corridors through the rehabilitation of waterways, wetlands, and floodplains.
The City of Cape Town, working with the C40 Cities Finance Facility, will develop a city-wide project for flood resilience and improved river management. This project focuses on three sub-catchments of the Diep Southern River, the Big and Little Lotus Rivers, and the Elsieskraal River. The rivers flow through a wide variety of areas – informal settlements, industrial zones, and horticultural areas. This project will improve the conditions of public open spaces and river corridors through the rehabilitation of waterways, wetlands, and floodplains.
- Location Cape Town - South Africa
- Population 5.8 million (2023)
- River Catchments Diep Southern River Big and Little Lotus Rivers Elsieskraal River
Climate change means that the Western Cape will see changes in rainfall, with more in autumn and less in winter and spring, resulting in higher seasonal flooding risks and damage to urban infrastructure. Informal settlements on the edges of cities and the coast are especially vulnerable, as infrastructure was not designed to withstand these extreme weather events. So, it is crucial for Cape Town to implement more robust and ecologically sustainable infrastructure adapted to the local context.
In the past, the city has applied traditional ‘grey’ waterway management interventions, such as large regional storage ponds, flood embankments and walls, silt traps, and rock gabions to address flooding, pollution, and erosion. But nature-based solutions offer far more benefits than this ‘grey’ infrastructure. Nature-based solutions can restore and protect natural ecosystems, absorb greenhouse gases, cool cities, purify the air, and tackle biodiversity loss. This project will plant vegetation, remove alien vegetation, control erosion, recycle and repurpose waste, recharge groundwater and restore wetlands, preserving both human and environmental health. It will also increase public green spaces, reduce stress, encourage exercise, and improve social connections. Creating and maintaining nature-based river management will create a range of green jobs for local people.
This project has the potential to be truly transformative. Cape Town has 2,000km of rivers and streams, which have been negatively affected by urbanisation, pollution, and changing land use. Natural rivers have been modified into concrete channels or buried in pipes and culverts. Developing a finance-ready model for green infrastructure would set a precedent for future interventions, strengthening political backing and encouraging replication in Cape Town and throughout South Africa. This project will harness nature-based solutions to create employment whilst protecting nature, mitigating climate change, and making communities healthier and more resilient.