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The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Mr Ronnie Kasrils, referred in his Parliamentary vote speech on 6 June to the figure of 10 million South Africans who had been affected at some point in the past by the disconnection of their access to water, disseminated last year in an HSRC publication entitled Cost Recovery & the Crisis of Service Delivery. The HSRC has clarified that the figure is an extrapolation by an independent, external researcher in an HSRC survey of three months duration, and considerably overestimates the phenomenon. However, the extent and consequences of these disconnections by local authorities remains a serious matter of concern. The more appropriate questions are what proportion of households are connected, and what proportion are disconnected at a particular point in time. The HSRC survey showed that 76% of households reported receiving piped water and 53% received metered piped water. Data from the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) indicate that 133 000 households had their water disconnected at some time during the last three months of 2001. Connecting these facts, a plausible estimate of the number disconnected at any point during that three months period would be less than 2% of all connected households. The HSRC plans to conduct further research for the Department to clarify the extent and the causes of the disconnection of basic water supplies to poor communities.
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