by Liesl Peyper. originally posted on June 2, 2016

Cape Town – Although 89.4% of households in South Africa have access to piped water, less than half of them enjoy water in the comfort of their own homes.

According to the General Household Survey 2015, released by Statistician General Pali Lehohla on Thursday, an estimated 45.8% of South Africans had access to piped water in their dwellings. A further 27% could access water on-site and 14% relied on communal taps, while 2.7% had to use a neighbour’s tap.
Generally household access to water improved since 2002, but 4.4% of South African households had to fetch water from streams, rivers, stagnant water pools and springs. This is down from 9.5% of households in 2002.

While access to piped water has significantly improved, a number of households around the country are not satisfied with the quality or provision of water.

Less than two-thirds (62%) of households said water services were “good” in 2015 – slightly higher than the 60.1% recorded in 2012, but significantly lower than the 76.4% approval rating in 2005.

The dissatisfaction rate with water services reflected in the Household Survey correlated with the results of the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Blue Drop Report of 2014, which was released in January this year.

According to the report, the quality of South Africa’s drinking water has dropped by 8% between 2013 and 2014, while the number of municipalities that received Blue Drops (systems that supply excellent water quality) more than halved from 98 in 2012 to 44 in 2014.