CoCT Council passes city's first resilience strategy

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"The strategy is a roadmap for a 21st century metropolis which aims to strengthen the city against sudden potential shocks in future, from storms and heat waves, to cyber-attacks, global financial crises and other unforeseen challenges. The decision by council today follows from a two-year partnership with 100 Resilient Cities, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation. The strategy will guide Cape Town, inclusive of its households, communities and institutions, to build collective responses to the current and future social, environmental and economic challenges," said the city’s mayoral committee member for corporate services, Councillor Sharon Cottle.

Resilience during drought

Resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems within a city to survive, adapt and grow no matter what kind of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. Cape Town and its more than four million residents displayed remarkable resilience in navigating the city through the recent severe drought.

"There is no doubt that the whole city learnt many lessons during this experience. These lessons are useful as our city prepares for many other plausible shock events in the future including cyber-attack, global or national financial crises, heat waves and flooding," said Cottle.

The strategy, which is fully aligned with the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, contains 75 actions, ranging from initiatives to improve urban regeneration, developing a neighbourhood resilience assessment, rolling out adaptive management training for city officials and using data for resilient decision-making.