The nexus of poverty and water access in female-headed households

Access to safe drinking water remains a global challenge, particularly for developing countries where poverty and service delivery intersect. This is a resonant issue for a country like South Africa with vulnerable groups, such as women, being the most affected when there is reduced water access. There is a clear link between poverty and lack of access to clean water. The main objective of this paper was to investigate the link between water access and poverty in female headed households. The paper uses data from the General Household Survey of 2022, conducted by Statistics South Africa. A binary logistic regression was used to arrive at the odds of being poor. The findings of this study indicate that female household heads who are African, single, who do not pay for water, who use natural sources of water and have a large household size are likely to be poor together with their households. This clearly shows the challenges that need to be addressed to achieve sustainable development goal 6. The government needs to be intentional and deliberate in addressing the plight of vulnerable women by having directed policies on water access and poverty reduction