The City of Cape Town Launched its 2023 Infrastructure Report on 14 February 2024 at the Civic Centre. The report is the culmination of their undertaking to evaluate the City’s bulk infrastructure annually across the five directorates of Energy, Urban Waste Management, Water and Sanitation, Human Settlements and Urban Mobility. The report is intended to inform and hold the City accountable to the citizens of Cape Town on their infrastructure plans.

The report sought in particular to answer the following questions:

1.Are the critical projects identified across all five sectors in the previous report (2022) on track?
2.Have there been any significant new developments or new risk areas in the City’s bulk infrastructure pipeline?
3.Have any of the key challenges in Cape Towns bulk infrastructure sectors been resolved since last years report?
4.Is the 10-year portfolio adequately preparing the City to deal with key climate change shocks?

It was encouraging to see how the infrastructure planning at the city is aligned with their updated spatial development plans and an acknowledgement that the City is growing at a substantial pace. It is currently just short of five million citizens according to the latest census data, and could potentially double to 10 million people. Economic growth in the City is only possible if the underlying infrastructure is in place to enable the City to grow, and infrastructure development is only possible with a capable workforce to deliver on these ambitions. Thus, our role as infrastructure practitioners in the western Cape will be critical to enable the City to realise its vision. We hope to continue engaging with the City to see how SAICE-WC can support them.

City of Cape Town Infrastructure Report 2023