Cape Town celebrated International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR) in 2025 and emphasised on building resilience against potential disasters. Resilience, especially the coastal resilience was the focus of the G20 Disaster Working Group gathering in Cape Town over the past few days.
The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is observed on October 13, 2025. The theme for year 2025 is ‘fund resilience, not disasters’. It highlights 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.
Reportedly, 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.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Safety and Security – Alderman JP Smith said that the adage of prevention is better than cure and seems apt in this instance.
Smith added that by investing more in measures that prevent or reduce the impact of disasters, they ease the potential impacts where disasters do strike and fast-track recovery.
In Cape Town, they already do a lot of work in this regard, but there is always room to ramp up the efforts.
Furthermore, Cape Town’s disaster resilience efforts include the Winter Readiness Task Team. These are mandated to implement risk mitigation measures to reduce weather-related impacts.
The ongoing public education and awareness programmes are also a part of it, 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 of Cape Town has also undertaken a number of capital projects funded through the Municipal Disaster Response and Recovery Grant to safeguard communities at risk, particularly in the low-lying areas.
Notably, this week, the G20 Disaster Reduction Working Group also saw first-hand coastal protection efforts by the City of Cape Town, which include infrastructure maintenance and upgrades for sea walls and public facilities, and established coastal overlay zones to control development near the coast.
Alderman JP Smith further stated that 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.