The book presents the history of water supply to Cape Town, leading up to the worst ever drought recorded, through political turmoil impacting on drought interventions and resulting in the adoption of an integrated water strategy.

Regions reliant on water supply from rainfed dams have always been vulnerable to the impact of drought. This is exacerbated by the uncertainty of future rainfall, which is never guaranteed, and reliance is placed on modelling using historic data. While weather has always been variable, climate has been generally reliable. With anthropogenic activity causing changes in climate, the validity of modelling based on history is currently not fully trusted. Unless the storage capacity is sufficient to carry through numerous seasons of poor rainfall, even with water restrictions to match demand and supply in times of depleted rainfall, the risk of reservoirs running dry remains a threat.

Gisela Kaiser is an accomplished management executive and professional civil engineer with 30 years experience in development and management of infrastructure projects and programs within a wide range of sectors including local government, industrial development, higher education and retail. Her passion lies in sustainable development - building a future that is integrated; where complex solutions are not detrimental to distant stakeholders, and where development results in increased social justice, equality and environmental stewardship.

Chapter 1, Introduction.- Chapter 2. Water Supply in Cape Town.- Chapter 3. Reconciliation strategy.- Chapter 4. Politics, trust and governance.- Chapter 5. The Drought.- Chapter 6. Reliance on rainfall, climate variability and climate change.- Chapter 7. The Water Resilience Programme.- Chapter 8. The New Water Programme.- Chapter 9. NWP: Managing dam levels.- Chapter 10. NWP: Managing Demand.- Chapter 11. NWP: Augmentation.- Chapter 12. Lessons learnt.- Chapter 13. Conclusion.