Water Sensitive Cities

Abstract

This chapter addresses water in times of climate change from the vantage point of three major cities: Jakarta, Amsterdam, and Cape Town. In the previous chapters, we have seen that water is a key factor in some of the most compelling challenges people have to meet worldwide. Rising sea levels, drought and desertification, shortage of drinking water, and sanitation shape and form our struggles with water that will be crucial to the sustainability and viability of the earth. Nevertheless, a politics of hope does not live in abstractions. Hope can become visible in relations and situations that are under real threat. Therefore, in this chapter we focus on three cities that are threatened by water in times of climate change. The three key themes identified in the introduction are used to categorise the cities: