1.3 million SA households don't have piped water

There are close to 1.3 million households in South Africa without access to piped water, the majority of them black households, according to the 2011 Census results.

A breakdown by population group shows there are 1,234,087 black, 15,723 coloured, 2672 Indian or Asian, and 10,738 white households with "no access to piped (tap) water".

The census, a snapshot of the situation in the country at midnight on October 9 last year, also reveals there are still 297,847 households using the notorious bucket toilet system.

In addition to this, as many as 748,597 households around the country have no toilet system at all, while 8,242,924 have flush toilets connected to a sewage system.