In response to the recent drought experienced in Cape Town and other towns in the Western Cape, there was a need to establish where Cape Town ranks in terms of water security and resilience. Zutari benchmarked the City of Cape Town as a ‘Water Sensitive City’ using the Water Sensitive City Index, a benchmarking tool developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities in Melbourne, Australia. The outcome was that formal areas ranked closely to cities in developed countries, while informal areas ranked closely to cities in developing countries.