By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Associate Professor Gina Ziervogel, a University of Cape Town (UCT) geographer and climate change adaption expert, was part of a multi-disciplinary team who raced to find solutions for the region’s water crisis.
Based in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science in the Faculty of Science, Associate Professor Ziervogel was appointed to the City of Cape Town’s Water Resilience Advisory Committee in 2017 to provide expert input on the City’s drought plans. Since then, she has not looked back.
Her work on urban water resilience and social justice sheds much-needed light on the manner in which the City handled the region’s drought, and how a metropole should better engage with residents around water issues. In recognition of this work and her ongoing efforts towards achieving social justice in her discipline, UCT has presented Ziervogel with the 2020 Social Responsiveness Award.
“This award is very special to me. I have sometimes wondered about my place in academia. But over the past few years I feel I have really been valued as an academic [who] engages in socially responsive work,” she said.
Ziervogel’s appointment to the City’s Water Resilience Advisory Committee at the onset of the drought was fitting. She had just received a substantial grant from the AXA Research Fund – a scientific philanthropic initiative committed to supporting science and contributing to societal progress. Her mandate was to focus on urban resilience and governance in the context of water and social justice in Cape Town. This work set a firm foundation for what was to come.
Her research argued that to build environmental sustainability, residents need to develop an understanding of social and governance issues, as much as environmental and technical issues. The objective of her research was to understand the scale of drought governance at city level, the challenges with access to water at community level, and to facilitate ongoing dialogue between residents and City officials on how to work together to address the problem.
“This is particularly important in the context of inequality where the voices of society’s marginalised are insufficiently heard. Yet, these voices are critical to ensure sustainability,” Ziervogel said.
In 2018 and 2019, Ziervogel also contributed to the National Treasury’s City Support Programme, and provided input on several urban climate change research questions. At the time, she worked closely with city officials and produced a report that highlighted lessons on Cape Town’s drought.
The report was shared broadly with other South African municipalities and researchers interested in the topic and published on the University of Cape Town news.
