UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

“We have to accept that the climate is changing and therefore we have to adapt to those changes.”
- Gina Ziervogel, PHD

”… we are arguing that you want Transformative Adaptation, that addresses underlying social inequalities that are creating these problems as much as climate change is.”
- Johan Enqvist, PHD

The SenseMaker Project

In 2018 Cape Town experienced its most severe drought in over 100 years. It was set to be the first major city in the world to run out of water. It is now widely accepted that the severity and timing of the drought was impacted by climate change.

With one of the highest levels of inequality in the world, the way such a climate shock impacts people in South Africa varies greatly. As Mama Dondi, one of the protagonists of this documentary puts it, “… those who do not have much are now much more vulnerable than the ones who have more in their pockets.”

Cape Town eventually made it through the drought, and in an effort to ensure that we are more prepared for the next climate shock, researchers from the ACDI at UCT partnered with the Western Cape Water Caucus and The Environmental Monitoring Group in an exciting and innovative research project to better understand the lived realities of citizens, in order to develop context-specific adaptation responses to Climate Change.

“… the reason we’re doing this research is to better understand how we can adapt to climate change, and we are arguing that you don’t want incremental adaptation… you want transformative adaptation, that also addresses the underlying social inequalities that are creating these problems as much as climate change is.”

- Johan Enqvist