Household access to water and willingness to pay in South Africa: evidence from the 2007 General Household Survey

Magister Philosophiae - MPhilThis study assesses the present level of household water access and the willingness to pay in South Africa. Although the general literature informs that progress has been made in positing South Africa above the levels found in most African countries, there are some marked inequalities among the population groups and across the provinces, with some performing well and others poorly in this regard. The study looks at the extent to which households differ in terms of water access and willingness to pay according to the province of residence. The study focuses on household heads; male and female, through different social and demographic attributes, by taking account of variables such as age, education attainment, geographic areas, and population group to name but a few. The data used in this study comes from the 2007 General Household Survey (GHS) conducted by Statistics South Africa. The scope is national and employs cross tabulation and logistic regression to establish relationships and the likelihood of living in a household with access to safe drinking water in South Africa. Results presented in this study suggest that the difference is determined by socio- demographic characteristics of each household such as age, gender, population group, level of education, employment status income, dwelling unit, dwelling ownership, living quarters, household size and income. It throws more light as to what needs to be taken into account when considering demand and supply of and priorities for water intervention from the household perspective.South Afric