More have access to safe water

2011-08-30 20:23

Pretoria - Statistics SA said on Tuesday that 93% of South African households in 2010 had access to safe water in 2010.

This had improved from 88.7% in 2002, according to statistics in the General Household Survey.

These figures did not take into account the distance people had to travel to reach water and regarded safe water as piped, tap and borehole water.

The Eastern Cape had the lowest access to safe water in 2010 at 74%.

It had, however, shown remarkable progress from 59% access in 2002, the report said.

The Western Cape had the best access in 2010 at 99%.

Having access to water did not mean that safe water was easy to access, according to the report. Only 45% of those with access to water actually had it in their dwellings.

Limpopo was the worst at 14%, followed by North West at 25% and Mpumalanga at 29%.

A total of 59% of households in 2010 used flush toilets connected to a public sewerage system - up from 56% in 2002.

Households with no toilet facilities dropped from 10% in 2002 to 5% in 2010.

The government had not yet managed to eliminate the use of bucket toilets although its use had dropped from 2.5% to 0.8% in 2010.

Thirty-thousand households were surveyed in face-to-face interviews.

- SAPA