Abstract
While evidence from several developing countries suggests the existence of socio-economic inequalities in the access to safe drinking water, a limited number of studies have been conducted on this topic in informal settlements. This study assessed socio-economic inequalities in the use of drinking water among inhabitants of informal settlements in South Africa. The study used data from “The baseline study for future impact evaluation for informal settlements targeted for upgrading in South Africa.” Households eligible for participation were living in informal settlements targeted for upgrading in all nine provinces of South Africa. Socio-economic inequalities were assessed by means of multinomial logistic regression analyses, concentration indices, and concentration curves. The results showed that the use of a piped tap on the property was disproportionately concentrated among households with higher socio-economic status (concentration index: +0.17), while households with lower socio-economic status were often limited to the use of other inferior (less safe or distant) sources of drinking water (concentration index for nearby public tap: −0.21; distant public tap: −0.17; no-tap water: −0.33). The use of inferior types of drinking water was significantly associated with the age, the marital status, the education status, and the employment status of the household head. Our results demonstrate that reducing these inequalities requires installing new tap water points in informal settlements to assure a more equitable distribution of water points among households. Besides, it is recommended to invest in educational interventions aimed at creating awareness about the potential health risks associated with using unsafe drinking water.
Highlights
Safe drinking water is essential for human health and can prevent the development of illnesses such as diarrheal disease and enteropathy, which could lead to death, especially in children below the age of five [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
The situation has improved over the years as a result of policy interventions guided by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which urged to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015 [8,9,10,11]
We focused on the access to drinking water among those living in informal settlements, which has barely been the focus of previous studies [28]
Summary
Safe drinking water is essential for human health and can prevent the development of illnesses such as diarrheal disease and enteropathy, which could lead to death, especially in children below the age of five [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. In 1990, one out of four people in the world did not have access to safe drinking water sources [9]. The situation has improved over the years as a result of policy interventions guided by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which urged to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015 [8,9,10,11]. In 2015, 91% of the global population used a safe drinking water source, but still 663 million people lacked access [9]. These people are forced to collect water from unprotected and often contaminated wells or springs, or
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