City works to shore up disaster resilience plans
12 October 2025
The theme for International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) in 2025 places the emphasis on building resilience against potential disasters. Resilience, and in particular coastal resilience, was the focus of the G20 Disaster Working Group gathering in Cape Town over the past few days. Read more below:
International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is observed on 13 October. The theme this year is 'fund resilience, not disasters'. It emphasises the need for investment in disaster risk reduction as opposed to disaster response.
According to the World Bank, a dollar invested in disaster resilience in developing countries saves four dollars in economic impacts.
Cape Town is no stranger to disasters, and the impacts have become even more apparent in recent years, with increases in fires, floods, landspouts and coastal storm surges.
'The old adage of prevention is better than cure seems apt in this instance. By investing more in measures that prevent or reduce the impact of disasters, we ease the potential impacts where disasters do strike, and fast-track recovery. In Cape Town, we already do a lot of work in this regard, but there is always room to ramp up our efforts,' said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
Cape Town's disaster resilience efforts include the Winter Readiness Task Team, mandated to implement risk mitigation measures to reduce weather-related impacts; ongoing public education and awareness programmes, such as the fire and flood wise initiative, community-based risk assessment workshops, neighbourhood resilience assessments, climate change programmes in schools, the 'women & girls' invisible force of resilience project, safer places of worship initiative and a very strong DRMC volunteer corps.
The City has also undertaken a number of capital projects funded through the Municipal Disaster Response and Recovery Grant to safeguard communities at risk, particularly in low-lying areas.
Among the works this year have been the:- Installation of the gabion and rip rap structures to address erosion along the river banks in Sir Lowry's Pass Village
- Refurbishment of sections of the Blomvlei and Southfield concrete stormwater canals
- Remedial work to flood protection infrastructure along the Lourens River
This week, the G20 Disaster Reduction Working Group also saw first-hand some of the City's coastal protection efforts, which include infrastructure maintenance and upgrades for sea walls and public facilities, and establishing coastal overlay zones to control development near the coast.
'The G20 activities this past week have also provided useful insights and opportunities to share best practices with other cities. The focus was coastal resilience, but in truth, the learnings went far beyond the shoreline,' added Alderman Smith. Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
