Basic drinking-water access in South Africa
The percentage of people using at least basic water services. This indicator encompasses both people using basic water services as well as those using safely managed water services. Basic drinking water services is defined as drinking water from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a round trip. Improved water sources include piped water, boreholes or tubewells, protected dug wells, protected springs, and packaged or delivered water.
-0.25 pp from 2023
% · World Bank World Development Indicators · Missing observations remain gaps.
Underlying data
Download CSV| Year | Value | Status & source note |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Not available | missing |
| 2024 | 90.1916801364739 | present |
| 2023 | 90.4386965804708 | present |
| 2022 | 90.6825361107103 | present |
| 2021 | 90.9231026021655 | present |
| 2020 | 91.1598368082793 | present |
| 2019 | 91.3923995625225 | present |
| 2018 | 91.6208678269317 | present |
| 2017 | 91.844654961916 | present |
| 2016 | 92.0633898282653 | present |
| 2015 | 92.2766813341795 | present |
| 2014 | 92.4843371456174 | present |
| 2013 | 92.0754416048639 | present |
| 2012 | 91.6578231075925 | present |
| 2011 | 91.2307992186561 | present |
| 2010 | 90.7948993263466 | present |
| 2009 | 90.3498541806487 | present |
| 2008 | 89.895824706748 | present |
| 2007 | 89.4320344752116 | present |
| 2006 | 88.9593651216847 | present |
| 2005 | 88.4775318362901 | present |
| 2004 | 87.9864909045076 | present |
| 2003 | 87.4856409014173 | present |
| 2002 | 86.9757383414211 | present |
| 2001 | 86.4622424726781 | present |
| 2000 | 85.9559975488844 | present |
Definition & method
Methodology: The data sources for drinking water services are household surveys such as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), administrative data, census, and other datasets such as compilations by international or regional initiatives (e.g., IB-NET) or studies conducted by research institutions. Based on these national datasets, JMP estimates the proportion of the people accessing different levels of services by using linear regression. You can find the details of estimates including the rules on interpolation, extrapolation and extension in the JMP’s methodology report (https://washdata.org/reports/jmp-2017-methodology). Statistical concept(s): The JMP classifies the water service levels into five tiers, ranging from the most to the least favorable: safely managed, basic, limited, unimproved, and surface water (Reference: https://washdata.org/monitoring/drinking-water). This indicator encompasses both people using basic water services as well as those using safely managed water services.
What to keep in mind
- At least basic means an improved source with a collection round trip of at most 30 minutes. This differs from safely managed drinking water and does not by itself establish water safety.
- Annual 2000–2025 selection. Source estimates and historical values may be revised; unavailable values remain missing.