Pretoria - A total of 92.9% South African households had access to a safe water supply in 2010, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said.
According to the Water and Sanitation 2002 - 2010 analysis of the General Household Survey released by stats SA on Tuesday, approximately four in 10 households have access to piped water inside their dwelling units.
"General access to piped water on site rose steadily, from 27.5% in 2002 to 29.1% in 2010," said Stats SA.
Households that accessed wells and springs as main sources of water decreased from 1.4% in 2002 to 0.3% in 2010 with respect to wells, and from 2% in 2002 to 1.6% in 2010 with respect to springs.
"Ninety-six percent of formal dwelling units reported to have access to safe water, whether inside the dwelling unit, in the yard, from a neighbour's tap or from a communal tap. Only 2.6% use water from unsafe sources," read the report.
Informal dwellings/shacks in backyards had the highest percentage at 97.9% to access to safe water.
"If the distance travelled to water is not taken into consideration, and safe sources are regarded as piped or tap or borehole water, the majority of South Africans have access to safe water," said Stats SA.
However, the provinces with the lowest access to safe water in 2010 were the Eastern Cape (74.4%) and KwaZulu-Natal (87.1 %) The Western Cape had 79% of people accessing safe water in their dwellings and 13% in their yards.
"In South Africa, access to safe water is strongly associated with home ownership and good access to services (sanitation, refuse removal, formal dwelling)," said the report.
"Approximately 12% of households in the country walked 201 metres or more, whilst a further 14% of households walked 200m or less, to access a water source. Nearly 75% of South African households in 2010 had access to water inside their dwelling units or on-site."
The Eastern Cape (30.1%), Limpopo (20.2%), and KwaZulu-Natal (19.7%) had the highest percentage of households who had to walk 201m or more to reach the nearest source of water, while households in Gauteng were the least likely to walk more than 201m (1.2%).
