Watershed management strategy

UCT has developed a sustainable water management strategy in 2021, which includes components that address the need for watershed management. The strategy began implementation in 2021 and continued through 2024 and still continues. The executive summary of the strategy is published online.

Further supporting work that supports watershed management on campus, directly or indirectly:

Integrated Pest and Waste Management Practices

In 2024 UCT re-tendered its pest management contract and changed the specification to an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) specification, which is a first for any university in South Africa. An integrated pest management approach radically reduces the use of any poisons for pest management, instead using an approach of more inspections, physical trapping and only were absolutely necessary using poisons and only using poisons that do not have any severe secondary poisoning affect. This approach is a much more environmentally responsible approach to improve watershed management and radically reduces the risk of any secondary poisoning into aquatic systems linked to the campus. The new IPM contract was awarded in 2024 and the contractor started in October 2024, with an independent specialist reviewing the implementation on behalf of UCT.

UCT also went out to tender in 2024 for a new waste collection and recycling contractor, with an Integrated Waste Management (IWM) specification. The IWM specification is closely linked to the IPM, because better waste management results in less pests on campus, and better waste management also results in better watershed management and less environmental harm to aquatic systems linked to the campus. The new IWM waste contractor was appointed in 2024 and started in January 2025.

Khusela Ikamva Sustainable Campus Project

"Khusela Ikamva" is a sustainability project at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that aims to make the campus more environmentally friendly. This is a five-year initiative (from ~2020 to 2026) aimed at transforming UCT into a more sustainable campus. In 2024, the project continued to focus on five key areas: energy/carbon, water, waste, wildlife, and social responsiveness, using the campus as a "living lab" for research and testing sustainable solutions. The project engages the community through activities like sustainability tours and research initiatives, with the goal of creating a more sustainable campus and influencing practices beyond UCT. One of its core themes is sustainable water, under which Blue-Green Infrastructure (rain gardens, green roofs, ponds, stormwater harvesting), water sensitive design (WSD), and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) are being explored.

Published reports (e.g. "Khusela Ikamva: Marked progress towards a water-sensitive campus") describe several projects: stakeholder mapping, project databases, audits of water use, greywater reuse and risk assessments, stormwater harvesting, and living lab installations (including at the UCT dam precinct).

Living Labs & Campus Interventions

UCT is adopting a “living lab” model across multiple campus sites to test water-sensitive strategies in practice (e.g. the UCT dam site, stormwater/greywater reuse, sustainable drainage).

These interventions include not just infrastructure but also engagement and data gathering: surveys, focus groups, monitoring water flows, etc., to understand how sustainable water strategies perform.

Wildlife species on campus: Khusela Ikamva

Khusela Ikamva (“Secure the Future”) was launched in 2020 as a 5‑year initiative (2020‑2026) at UCT to transform the campus into a sustainable “living lab”. The project addresses five core themes: energy/carbon, sustainable water, waste/energy/food nexus, wildlife/waste/art nexus, and community/social responsiveness. The wildlife theme is specifically described as “wildlife/waste/art nexus” under the leadership of Prof. Nicoli Nattrass (iCWild) as the research leader for that component.

The wildlife component recognises UCT’s special location: it borders the Table Mountain National Park, which gives the campus a unique interface of built space and wildlife habitat.

Key areas of work

Wildlife & waste interaction

Under the wildlife theme, one major strand is the link between campus waste management practices, rodent pest control, and wildlife health. For example, UCT has documented how poor waste disposal leads to increased rodent populations, which in turn leads to increased use of rodenticides — which may have negative effects on wildlife predators like caracal, genets, birds and snakes which feed on rodent prey.

Wildlife monitoring & biodiversity survey on campus

A recent survey of wildlife on UCT’s upper campus revealed that Cape genet, Cape grysbok, Cape porcupine, caracal, and water mongoose are frequent visitors. The water mongoose is a large, solitary, and semi-aquatic mongoose native to sub-Saharan Africa that lives near water sources like rivers and dams. It is a nocturnal predator that feeds primarily on aquatic prey like crabs, frogs, and fish, but also eats other small animals and vegetation on land. These data show that the wildlife component is not purely theoretical — there is actual biodiversity monitoring of species presence/abundance on campus and in interface zones.

Artistic/engagement interventions

The wildlife theme is explicitly linked to “art & waste” via the Campus Wild UCT initiative. For example, student projects include art installations that highlight marine life (e.g., kelp weaving, coral bleaching awareness) but also terrestrial wildlife and campus fauna.

The website “Campus Wild UCT” states:

“Campus Wild UCT … is part of the wildlife focus of UCT’s Sustainable Campus Initiative, Khusela Ikamva … the project draws attention to multispecies entanglements within that space and the responsibilities of sharing the campus with its other faunal and floral occupants.”

Significance

The wildlife component integrates ecological monitoring (camera traps, species presence) with campus operational concerns (waste, pest control, habitat interface).
It accentuates the “living lab” concept: UCT’s campus is not just an academic environment, but a site of biodiversity, wildlife movement and ecological interfaces (especially given proximity to a national park).
It connects interdisciplinary approaches: ecology, art, waste management, pest control, social science engagement — highlighting how wildlife conservation on campus is tied to multiple dimensions of sustainability.

The data collected (species lists, occupancy values) provide a baseline for further interventions: e.g., reducing rodenticides, enhancing habitat connectivity, educating community on wildlife‑human interactions.