Urban consumers give water services the thumbs up

Abstract

Municipal services Urban consumers give water services the thumbs up Though water is a topic that sometimes reaches headlines for negative reasons in South Africa, the country’s water has a lot going for it. Our drinking water is generally good, with standards that compare well globally. Petro Kotzé reports on the results of a survey on urban South Africans’ perceptions of their municipal water and sanitation services. As with any other goods and services, customer satisfaction is closely aligned to the users’ perception of the product and service. Independent researcher, Dr Sarah Slabbert (of Sarah Slabbert Associates), points out that users have no choice of water service providers in South Africa, so they cannot ‘shop around’ for alternatives. However, she says, customer satisfaction is still the basic principle of service delivery. The simple question whether you are delivering a good service still applies. So, what then are South Africans’ perception of their drinking water quality and related service provision?

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