Chart of the week: Taps but no water
In most provinces, less than 60% of people in formal housing have reliable water access
While almost all people who live in formal housing have access to water supply infrastructure, for many, the supply is not reliable.
According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, about 88% of people in South Africa who live in formal housing (at least RDP level or above) have access to water infrastructure, but only 67% have a reliable supply.
Water infrastructure access means it is available within 200m of a house. For the approximately 7.6-million people living in housing below RDP level, the situation is much worse: only 12% have access to water infrastructure.
This demonstrates how water and sanitation infrastructure are failing across the country. Water supply systems are not proactively maintained due to budgetary constraints and government mismanagement.
In most provinces ā Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Free State, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga ā the situation has gotten worse in recent years. In others, there has been some slow improvement.
The departmentās data is based on the 2011 census and its own modelling. The figures should be treated as estimates.
Produced by The Outlier in partnership with GroundUp.
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