Thohoyandou - Nearly 90% of households in Limpopo's Vhembe region now have access to clean running water.
This was revealed during the official hand over of the Census 2011 results at the Vhembe district municipality in Thohoyandou this week.
"We are happy and relieved that the district had a significant increase in numbers of people that had access to clean running water and electricity, compared with other rural districts in the country," said district mayor Tshitereke Matibe.
He said 88.3% of the 269 547 households, which include 1.3 million people in the Vhembe district, have access to clean running water today.
In 1996, only 84.76% had access to clean water.
Matibe said the district also managed to increase access to electricity from 30.06% households in 2001 to 87.17% in the latest statistics.
"These 2011 census results are confirming that our government is gearing up in improving the lives of poor people," he said.
Vhembe district includes the four local municipalities of Makhado, Musina, Mutale and Thulamela.
According to Matibe, the census information will help his district with planning, policy formulation, evaluation and decision making.
"From these results, as government we will now be able to tell our people where we built schools and health facilities and where we need to improve the provision of basic services," added Matibe.
Vhavenda King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana welcomed the results.
"We are happy to find out that the district was gearing up in the delivery of water and electricity because water is the source of life. We would also like to thank the district municipality for making sure that electricity is accessible to our communities for lights and energy," said Mphephu Ramabulana.
He added that traditional leaders assisted government to produce the Census 2011 results because they mobilised communities to allow Census Field Workers to do their jobs without disturbance.
The results were presented to the district by officials from the provincial office of Statistic South Africa. - SAnews.gov.za
