General household survey - Statistics South Africa

Statistics South Africa 30
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Figure 28: Percentage of households that rated the water quality provided by the municipality as
good, 2011
Household perceptions regarding the quality of water they drink are presented in Table 10. It seems as if
households in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga have consistently been the unhappiest with
the quality of water they received. Although the proportion of households in South Africa complaining about
the safety of water remained stable at about 8% between 2005 and 2011 (7,5% in 2011), improvements
were noted in Eastern Cape (from 23,6% to 15,7%) and KwaZulu-Natal (12,6% to 9,6%) over this period.
While household perceptions of water safety generally improved between 2010 and 2011, a larger
percentage of households in Gauteng (+0,4%) and Western Cape (+2,1%) felt that their water was more
unsafe to drink than a year before. Households living in these provinces were, however, generally more
content with the general quality of water services they received. By comparison, households in Eastern
Cape have consistently been most unhappy with the cleanness, taste and smell of their water, followed by
households in Mpumalanga, and in 2011 also households in Northern Cape.
General Household Survey, July 2011