Vygekraal River Upgrade: Co-Design Workshop

Recently, our team in Cape Town held a successful Co-Design Workshop at the Bridgetown Community Centre in Bridgetown, Athlone. The purpose of the workshop was to gain knowledge and input from the local community into the upgrade of the Vygekraal River from Jakes Gerwel Drive, through Nantes Park to Athlone Wastewater Treatment Works. This project forms part of the City of Cape Town’s Liveable Urban Waterway Programme (LUWP) which began in the Sand River catchment.

The vision for this project is to upgrade the river corridor by improving water quality, ecology, reducing the impact of heavy rainfall events and upgrading of existing stormwater infrastructure, all while creating a space that can be used and enjoyed by the local community and others. The project will also target areas along the river where erosion is a concern.

The local community showed great interest in the project and provided the professional team with a wealth of knowledge of the area, with some residents having lived in the area for 30 plus years! We were glad to see pupils from local schools show up and actively engage during the course of the day.