Hydro-citizenship, partnerships, accountability and the CARE framework for urban flood adaptation in Cape Town’s rough neighbourhoods

In the flood-prone rough neighbourhoods of Cape Town, adaptation is not just a policy term, it is a daily act of survival. With little more than sandbags, makeshift warning systems, and collective resilience, residents navigate rising waters in settings marked by systemic neglect, violence, and fragmented governance. While adaptation scholarship increasingly recognize the significance of partnerships and collaborative approaches in flood adaptation, a pressing question persists in Cape Town's rough neighbourhoods: who is truly accountable when the rains return? In these communities, adaptation is not only about better infrastructure, but also a struggle for dignity, recognition, and rights. This paper advances the field of accountable adaptation by critically examining how flood adaptation partnerships operate within the complex terrain of urban informality, exclusionary politics, and civic insecurity. Drawing on key informant interviews, community workshops, document analysis, and observations from Cape Town’s rough neighbourhoods, the study develops a typology of various partnership models and uncovers how accountability is often fragmented, symbolic, or entirely absent. It institutionalises hydro-citizenship, as a civic identity and rights-based practice, by specifying platforms, resources and protections that reposition flood-affected residents as political and adaptation agents. The paper proposes the CARE framework (Collaborative, Accountable, Resilient, and Equitable) as a normative governance model that goes beyond technocratic fixes to embed justice, safety, and power-sharing at the heart of adaptation. Illuminating informality, violence, and political capture as foundational challenges, not peripheral risks, the paper calls for a radical reframing of climate governance that centres rights, local co-governance, and institutional care. The study offers both a critique and a hopeful reimagining of adaptation in urban peripheries, contributing new conceptual and empirical insights into how inclusive, enforceable, and accountable partnerships can be sustained in the age of climate extremes.