Michael Webster is Executive Director for Water and Waste at City of Cape Town. We explore the City’s water strategy and key commitments, lessons from the 2018 water crisis, recent progress made, future thinking, new technologies, opportunities and challenges for private sector collaboration, and advice for cities grappling with water management.
Join the Future Cities Africa Newsletter
Ask how you can collaborate with Future Cities Africa
Discussion highlights
This episode is presented in partnership with the City of Cape Town
Read the Water Strategy here
How Cape Town compares to other international and African cities in the water sector
Key takeaways from beating the water crisis of 2018
In hindsight, what the City would have done differently to avert the water crisis of 2018
5 commitments of the City of Cape Town water strategy
How these commitments will be met and against what indicators and schedule
Progress made to date (June 2021)
Key technologies that can help achieve the Water Strategy’s vision
Advice, opportunities and challenges for private sector to collaborate with the department
Advice for cities grappling with water management
About Michael John Webster
Leadership, management and operational experience in water and sanitation over 25 years. Currently, Executive Director of Water and Waste in the City of Cape Town. 16 years with the World Bank in Africa, Europe and South Asia.
As Executive Director of Water and Waste, responsible for the Water and Sanitation Department and the Solid Waste Management Department of the City of Cape Town. The municipality provides utility services to over a million households ranging from informal settlements to formal freehold and cluster housing, and strives to do so in a sustainable, equitable and affordable way. The Executive Director is part of the Executive Management Team reporting to the City Manager.
Prior experience includes water and sanitation specialist in different units of the World Bank since 1999, and 8 years’ experience outside of the World Bank working on informal settlement upgrading and rural development in South Africa.
Holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Princeton University, as well as a M.Sc in Water and Waste Engineering from Loughborough University and a B.Sc in Civil Engineering from the University of Cape Town.
Source: LinkedIn
Towards sustainable and smart mobility this episode of the MOVE Africa show is with Sasheen Rajkumar. He is a SANRAL project manager, engineer, creative problem solver, big-picture thinker, and futurist that actively thinks about solving local and global problems.
Play NowFelix Kariba is an urban and regional development expert with broad experience supporting urban governance and formulation of development policies and strategies, as a practitioner and researcher for international organisations, local and national governments, the private sector, and non-profit organisations.
Play NowSarah Findlay is 'Africa Data Hub' Project Lead at Open Cities Lab. We explore the importance and key features of the Africa Data Hub, responsibly sourced data, enabling trust in the media, value offered by the Africa Data Hub, how to collaborate with them and their plans to have a quantifiable impact.
Play NowBronwyn Williams is an Economist, Futurist, Trend Analyst, and Partner at Flux Trends. They recently published 21 trends for 2021 and a critical trend that stood out for us was: Private Cities. In this episode, we dive deep into the emergence of Private Cities in Africa and what the not-so-distant future may hold.
Play NowChuma Mbambo is an Urban Planner with experience working at the SA Cities Network, as a Smart Cities Research Consultant for The World Bank, and more.
Play Now