UCT is committed to minimising physical, chemical and biological alterations of related ecosystems, and this is proven by the following:

UCT has a “Sustainable Water Management Strategy” that commits to being a water‑sensitive campus and to reducing its overall impact of runoff on downstream water quality. The strategy includes an action plan with infrastructure upgrades, operational optimisations and community awareness programmes, aimed (among other things) at reducing wastewater/stormwater discharge and thereby reducing the negative physical/chemical impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

UCT’s research work includes projects like the Pathways to Water Resilient South African Cities (PaWS) project — which looked at retrofitting stormwater ponds into multifunctional blue‑green infrastructure to improve quality of runoff and reduce physical/chemical disruptions to the aquifer/ downstream ecosystems.