Samenvatting

In recent years, the deterioration of urban rivers, due to human activity, has been receiving increasing attention. Canalized rivers are being restored or rehabilitated to restore wildlife and bring back a more natural ecosystem. This shift in the way how we look at our rivers has also resulted in the Rosebank Canal Rehabilitation project. This project aims to rehabilitate a section of the Liesbeek River, located in Cape Town, South Africa. As a result, a social research study was conducted to study the experience of the residents throughout a river rehabilitation project.
This research study provides input on the already existing literature by elaborating on the social challenges faced during the project. These challenges can be taken as an example for similar studies or rehabilitation projects in a comparable environment. In addition to that, a sum of the findings of this study is presented to the municipality of Cape Town using a brochure. To provide this data this research study aims to answer the following question: ‘How do the residents of the Liesbeek area experience the river rehabilitation project?’
The data that is gathered to answer this question was done by the following methods. As it is a qualitative study, 12 semi-structured interviews combined with a Likert scale were gathered. The respondents were residents from the three adjacent suburbs near the project site. The interviews have been transcribed and after that coded. The Likert scale is presented using a box plot.
The empirical results presented in this study show that the residents experienced the river rehabilitation project as overall positive with some questions regarding the future of the project. The residents were glad to see action being taken in hand. However, there are some concerns regarding the homeless people ruining or polluting the project site and the survival of the vegetation during floods. These results lead to the following recommendations: perform an ethnography, and include authorities that deal with these social challenges. These authorities should be included from the start of the project.
From the collected data it can be concluded that the majority of the respondents are excited about the project and the fact that the aesthetics of the river are improved. Some are however worried that due to social challenges such as homelessness the project will not make any difference in the long term. Then there is also the matter of flooding. The public concern is that during floods when the water levels rise, and with it its velocity, there is the risk the vegetation will wash away. Since it is a project based on a trial and error method there is no clear response to this risk.