Drought response impacts on household water use practices in Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town recently endured a record-breaking drought which nearly ended in disaster for the city’s water supply. Municipal authorities introduced several measures to curb water demand using both monetary and other incentives, but little is known about how effective these measures were at encouraging people to save water. Previous literature shows no consensus as to which types of measures are most effective for managing residential water demand. Using information obtained through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 individuals living in houses where they paid their water bills, this study provides insights on how respondents interpreted and responded to these mechanisms. Results show that price mechanisms were considered to be ineffective and did not encourage people to save water in their households. Non-price mechanisms were seen as having more impact on respondents, encouraging water conservation behaviour; especially when it comes to household indoor water use activities related to hygiene. While previous studies primarily provide quantitative data to measure the effectiveness of water demand management strategies, this paper adds a qualitative understanding of how and why households’ water use practices change in response to these measures.