While access to piped water has improved over the last decade, the Eastern Cape lags behind the rest of the country.
According to a recently published Statistics SA (StatsSA) report, 89.4% of South African households had access to piped water in 2015. However only 74.9% of Eastern Cape households enjoyed such access.
Looking at the period from 2002 to 2015, the study showed that in 2002, 56.3% of the province’s households had piped water, which went either directly into their homes, to a single tap on their property or their neighbour’s, or to a tap within their community.
In a statement released last week, StatsSA spokeswoman Lesedi Dibakwane said: “This situation does represent a substantial improvement.”
This improvement is despite the many water services infrastructure problems experienced in municipalities over the last couple of years.
The Daily Dispatch has on many occasions reported on problems with the province’s waterworks which have caused major water outages.
Earlier this year the Amathole District Municipality was forced to announce water restrictions following dire water shortages in parts of the Eastern Cape. This is over and above the many water cuts those living within the municipality experience because of ailing water infrastructure.
In an effort to ease restrictions in this area, Water Affairs and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane approved a plan to re-allocate funding from conditional grants, allowing for R20-million to be made available to build a pipeline from Dutywa east water supply scheme to the town of Dutywa and surrounding areas.
Construction of the pipeline is expected to take eight months.
In April Buffalo City Metro’s failure of water infrastructure led to a water crisis that saw most parts of the metro without water for days, as engineers battled to solve the problem.
Although city bosses said vandalism was partly to blame for the cut-off, speculation was that ailing infrastructure had a role to play.
Analysis of the StatsSA report further shows that nationally, 62% of households rated the quality of water-related services they received as “good”.
Levels of satisfaction have, however, been decreasing steadily since 2005 when 76.4% of users rated the services as good.
“An estimated 45.8% of households had access to piped water in their dwellings in 2015,” said Dibakwane. — siphem@dispatch.co.za
Province behind in piped water supply
According to a recently published Statistics SA (StatsSA) report, 89.4% of South African households had access to piped water in 2015. However only 74.9% of Eastern Cape households enjoyed such access.
Looking at the period from 2002 to 2015, the study showed that in 2002, 56.3% of the province’s households had piped water, which went either directly into their homes, to a single tap on their property or their neighbour’s, or to a tap within their community.
In a statement released last week, StatsSA spokeswoman Lesedi Dibakwane said: “This situation does represent a substantial improvement.”
This improvement is despite the many water services infrastructure problems experienced in municipalities over the last couple of years.
The Daily Dispatch has on many occasions reported on problems with the province’s waterworks which have caused major water outages.
Earlier this year the Amathole District Municipality was forced to announce water restrictions following dire water shortages in parts of the Eastern Cape. This is over and above the many water cuts those living within the municipality experience because of ailing water infrastructure.
In an effort to ease restrictions in this area, Water Affairs and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane approved a plan to re-allocate funding from conditional grants, allowing for R20-million to be made available to build a pipeline from Dutywa east water supply scheme to the town of Dutywa and surrounding areas.
Construction of the pipeline is expected to take eight months.
In April Buffalo City Metro’s failure of water infrastructure led to a water crisis that saw most parts of the metro without water for days, as engineers battled to solve the problem.
Although city bosses said vandalism was partly to blame for the cut-off, speculation was that ailing infrastructure had a role to play.
Analysis of the StatsSA report further shows that nationally, 62% of households rated the quality of water-related services they received as “good”.
Levels of satisfaction have, however, been decreasing steadily since 2005 when 76.4% of users rated the services as good.
“An estimated 45.8% of households had access to piped water in their dwellings in 2015,” said Dibakwane. — siphem@dispatch.co.za
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