General household survey - Statistics South Africa

Statistics South Africa 38
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14. Environmental trends
The GHS includes a number of questions on the environment, the most important of which has been
included in the questionnaire from 2003 onwards, and which specifically asks households whether they
experience any of a list of environmental problems in the area where they live. Figure 35 summarises these
responses between 2003 and 2011.
Figure 35: Percentage of households who experience specific kinds of environmental problems,
2003–2011
Figure 35 reveals that waste removal problems and littering 9 (35,5%) as well as land degradation and soil
erosion (29,3%) were the two environmental problems that concerned the largest percentage of
households. Strikingly, the percentage of households that considered land degradation and soil erosion a
problem increased from 15,6% in 2003 to 29,3% in 2011. The proportion of households that felt that there
were problems with littering and waste removal in their areas increased substantially since 2003 when
28,7% of households regarded this as a problem. The percentage of households that perceived water
pollution as a problem has fluctuated significantly before settling on 13,7% in 2011, the same level as in
2003. Households that considered air pollution a problem decreased from 22,7% in 2003 to 16,5% in 2011.
During the twelve months preceding the survey, 44,2% of households used pesticides in their dwellings
and 12,2% used pesticides in their yards. A further 7,5% used herbicides in their yards or gardens. Most
South Africans are aware of the need to save resources.
15. Household sources of income
Figure 36 summarises the percentage of households according to the various sources of income reported
by households. Nationally, salaries (62,6%) and grants (44,8%) were reported as income sources by the
highest percentages of households. Provincially, the largest percentage of households that earned salaries
were found in Western Cape (73,6%) and Gauteng (72,7%). Grants were more prevalent than salaries as a
source of income in Limpopo (59,1%) and Eastern Cape (57,3%). Remittances as a source of income
played an important role in most provinces, but especially in Limpopo (28,4%), Eastern Cape (22,0%) and
Mpumalanga (20,6%).
9 The question related to waste removal/littering was asked slightly differently in 2009 in that the two categories were separated in 2009, whilst it was
combined as an option in the previous years. For the purposes of comparison they were grouped together again for 2009. This slight modification may also
have contributed to the higher number of households concerned about waste removal/littering.
General Household Survey, July 2011