ACDI co-hosts research symposium on “Assuring Resilient Urban Water Supplies: Learning from cities in sub-Saharan Africa” with Cardiff University

On 14 and 15 April, researchers from 9 countries gathered in Cape Town for a 2-day research symposium to share research findings, insights and emerging questions on assuring water resilience in African cities.

Sessions focused on the themes of: households and businesses as resilience actors; adaptive pathways and urban water supplies; narratives of care, well-being and emotive geographies; groundwater as an urban water supply; water-sensitive cities; and vulnerability, informality and water insecurity. Findings were shared from research conducted in Cape Town, Lagos, Windhoek, Lusaka, Dodoma, Durban, Dar es Salaam and Harare, as well as Bristol.

A key message that surfaced across the sessions is the need to recognise and work with the dynamism and heterogeneity of natural and social systems that constitutes cities. A much more nuanced governance framework is needed for urban water than we currently have in most cities. One that can adapt and deal equitably (not equally) as conditions change over space and time. Presentations highlighted the mix of public and private water supplies from various sources used to meet a diversity of urban needs. A dynamic understanding of this diverse mix, as well as trust, is needed amongst public and private actors to negotiate decisions that have shared outcomes, across income levels and sectors. Income mediates not just access but the type and quality of infrastructure that households, businesses and State agencies can deploy.

Issues of water chemistry and water quality were discussed, especially in relation to groundwater, water recycling, reuse and desalination. Incentivising monitoring, data sharing and reciprocity of information about water quantities and qualities surfaced as a need across many contexts. Household trust in government is declining in many cities and needs to be addressed. Participatory governance requires reciprocity, not only regulation.

Some terms that stimulated inter-disciplinary dialogue around meaning included: unconventional water; contaminants of emerging concern; emotional geography of water scarcity; negotiated commons; conjunctive use; institutional thickness; and decision cycles.

A spotlight was placed on the cities of Lagos in Nigeria and Cape Town in South Africa to consider the multifaceted geophysical and social nature of water and learn across these two cities. These panel sessions highlighted that groundwater needs to be treated as a strategic urban water resource, not only as a supplementary source during crisis. Its storage function gives cities an important buffer against drought and supply interruption. Urban groundwater resilience depends on both physical characteristics and governance. Aquifer type, recharge dynamics, salinity, and contamination pressure interact with institutions, data systems, and planning decisions. Managing groundwater and surface water resources (including stormwater and wastewater) in a conjunctive manner is essential.

Water quality protection is central to resilience. Acid mine drainage, nitrate enrichment, coastal salinity, bacteriological risk, and dumpsite-derived contamination mean that access to groundwater is not the same as access to safe groundwater. Monitoring must be sustained and multidisciplinary. Hydrochemistry, microbiology, geophysics, and seasonal sampling all have a role in understanding urban aquifer condition and change. For rapidly growing cities, groundwater governance needs to interface meaningfully with land-use control, waste management, and source protection rather than relying only on treatment or emergency response.

Urban water resilience cannot be achieved through one technology, one source of supply, or one engineering solution alone. Rather, it requires integrated thinking that connects water supply diversification, wastewater reuse, stormwater management, groundwater systems, nature-based solutions, and strong forms of public and community stewardship. Urban water resilience is not only a technical or infrastructural matter but is a socio-political process of formal and informal negotiation amongst households, businesses and government actors.

ACDI senior research, Dr Anna Taylor commented, “We are very pleased to have been able to co-host this event with Cardiff University and learn from colleagues working in cities across the African continent. There is a great need to equitably build water resilience amongst diverse water users and producers in the face of climate change. Our thanks to Dr Adrian Healy, who holds a Future Leaders Fellowship grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) that made this event possible, as well as to all the participants for sharing their insights and generously engaging across disciplines and contexts.”