An Urgent Crisis of Chronic Neglect: Lessons on Water Justice and Wellbeing in the Time of COVID-19

Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis represents a major disruption to societies across the planet, magnifying existing threats to social-ecological resilience. Illustrating these threats are links between inadequate water and sanitation services, climate stressors, and the challenge of coping with a global pandemic. In an urban context, water services are an intermediary between the built and natural environments, making sustainable water management a crucial aspect of cities’ resilience and efforts towards sustainable development. Yet, there is a growing need to understand how urban resilience functions across scales in order to develop sustainable transformations that align a city’s resilience goals with the wellbeing of its communities. Global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing water crisis threaten wellbeing beyond disease risk, highlighting the need for a broader understanding of risks that make communities vulnerable to such crises. Examining these connections within Cape Town, this case study investigates issues of water service delivery in low-income communities both before and during the pandemic. The city encounters increasing impacts of the climate crisis such as drought and flooding, while disadvantaged communities also experience basic service inequities. Existing problems involve leaking pipes, blocked drains, water contamination, and limited access to water taps and toilets. To understand how water issues could impact people’s wellbeing directly and indirectly, this thesis analyses perspectives of community members who describe their experiences with water-related risks. They speak of obstacles to daily tasks like cleaning and practicing basic hygiene, which are essential for disease prevention during a pandemic. However, the results indicate that water issues can also threaten wellbeing in less visible ways than immediate disease risk and can lead to psychological stress, social conflicts, and food insecurity. Identifying water-related risks through people’s own experiences is important for developing shared meanings of resilience for communities and the city as a whole. Risk management focusing on community-centred approaches to these challenges could help clarify how cities can collectively influence their own transformation. This thesis hopes to identify a broader scope of threats to community water justice and wellbeing, contributing to our understanding of urban resilience in a time of rising crises.