Stats SA claims most South Africans have access to water and electricity, but is service delivery up to standard?

Some progress has been made over the years to ensure that South African households have access to basic services, according to Statistics SA, but service delivery is still restricted in some provinces.

On Thursday, Statistics SA released its report, titled ‘The state of basic service delivery in South Africa: Analysis of Census 2022 data’. It claimed the majority of households in the country have access to piped water, use flush toilets, receive removal services, and have access to electricity.

Access to clean water

Stats SA found that 91.3% of households in the country had access to piped water. Access to quality water is included in the country’s constitution under the Bill of Rights to enhance “human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms”.

“Section 27 of the Constitution states that everyone has the right to access sufficient water. Section 27(2) requires the state to take reasonable measures to achieve this right.”

The Water Services Act sets minimum standards for water supply services, including at least 25 litres per person per day, and at least six kilolitres per household per month, among other standards.

Municipality’s role

The country is a three-tiered system of government, which is national, provincial and local. Municipalities, which fall under the local government sphere, are responsible for providing communities with basic service delivery.  

The report details that out of 205 municipalities in the country, only 169 municipalities have been authorised to provide water and sanitation services.   

It said 82.7% of households used piped water as their main source of drinking water in 2022. It added that 3.4% of households depend on unsafe water sources like rivers, streams, springs, dams, or stagnant water during the same period.

1.8% of households used water from vendors.

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Households by province

Access to piped water is the best in Western Cape (95.7% of households), followed by Gauteng (94.4%) and the Free State (91.9%).

“A significant percentage of households in Eastern Cape (10.9%), KwaZulu-Natal (7.0%), and Limpopo (5.7%) still rely on unsafe water sources.”

The use of water vendors as the main source of drinking was found in Limpopo (8.6%), North West (4.0%), and Mpumalanga (3.0%).

Boreholes were also a common source of water in Limpopo (15.8%) and North West (11.0%), which are both notably higher than the national average of 4.6%.

Water interruptions

Stats SA also detailed the number of households that experienced water interruptions between 2011 and 2022. In more than a decade, the number of households that experienced water interruptions had increased from 37.0% to 48.4%.

The number of households that experienced water interruptions increased across all provinces, except in Limpopo where it declined from 58.9% to 54.5%.

“The percentage of households that reported water interruptions similarly increased across most municipal categories. In rural municipalities the percentage of households that experienced water interruptions declined from 68.3% to 58.2% in 2022.”

Water cuts by province

Although the percentage of water interruptions were still high, they were less frequent in Western Cape (27.7%) and Gauteng (40.5%). “By contrast, a much higher percentage of households reported interruptions in Northern Cape (65.8%), North West (65.2%) and Mpumalanga (60.9%).”

Water interruptions are ever present across the country. On Wednesday, the University of Limpopo announced that it had to suspend final examinations due to water supply issues in the province.

Gauteng water struggles

Just days ago, Joburg Water informed 10 000 Johannesburg residents that they will be without water.

This was due to repairs of a 600mm main water pipe near the corner of Katherine and Pretoria Roads in Sandown.

This is despite Gauteng being one of the provinces with dams that have proportionately high capacities, as the Vaal dam drops.

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Flush toilets in the country

According to Census 2022, there are 70.9% households in the country with flush toilets connected to either the public sewerage or to a local septic system.

“Adequate access to proper sanitation is vital to preserve the health of populations. For this reason, government aims to increase the percentage of households with access to a functional sanitation service while eliminating the use of bucket toilets in formal areas,” reads the report.

Most flush toilets were found the Western Cape (93.9%) and Gauteng (89.7%), with the fewest found in Limpopo (35.2%), Mpumalanga (54.9%), North West (58.5%), Eastern Cape (58.7%) and KwaZulu-Natal (58.9%).

Slight improvement in a decade

The report acknowledges that there are many households that still lack adequate sanitation, but there was a slight improvement between 2011 and 2022.

Nationally, access to improved sanitation facilities increased by 11.8 percentage points to 80.7% between 2011 and 2022.

“The figure shows that access to improved sanitation increased across all provinces during this period. The largest increase was noted in Eastern Cape (23.2 percentage points), Limpopo (19.9 percentage points) and North West (17.2%).”

Solid waste removal services

Nationally, Stats SA says there was an increase in households whose solid waste was removed at least once per week from 62.1% in 2011 to 67.1% in 2022.

The number of households that used their own refuse dumps decreased from 28.2% to 22.3%.

“Provincially, access to weekly solid waste removal in 2022 was most common in Western Cape (90.4%) and Gauteng (85.8%), and least so in Limpopo (32.2%) and Mpumalanga (51.7%).”

“More than half (55.6%) of households in Limpopo used household scrap heaps, followed by 37.4% in Mpumalanga and 34.6% in Eastern Cape. The use of household refuse dumps was least common in Western Cape (1.8%) and Gauteng (4.6%).”

Municipalities hinder electricity growth

The stats show that Eskom is involved in distributing electricity in 140 municipalities, however some of these municipalities do not have service delivery agreements in place.

“Many municipalities consequently fail to make payments for Eskom for the electricity delivered to households in its jurisdiction, leading to an accumulation of debt and threats by Eskom to start cutting off electricity to municipalities.”

If debt to Eskom is not serviced efficiently, this would have significant consequences for residential and commercial entities.

Census 2022 data show that 94.7% of households had access to electricity.

93.4% of households mostly use electricity for lighting, but many other households continue to use other sources of energy for cooking due to a range of considerations, including the cost and inconsistent availability of electricity, and the availability of wood and other sources such as coal and charcoal.

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