The legacy of the inequitable water policy under apartheid continues to impact water services in economically less developed and rural areas in South Africa. Previous studies typically examine this relationship either by using aggregated data at the national level for large-scale research or by using data collected at the provincial or municipal level only for a specific locality. This study attempts to perform nationwide analysis using fine-scale data to give a spatial representation of the efficacy of water policies in South Africa. We used satellite night-time light data as a proxy of economic development and surface water quality at a quaternary water area level to investigate any income or racial inequality regarding water pollution, controlling for the spatial dependency of the observations. We found a spatial discrepancy in the relationship between water quality and economic development: economic development improves water quality in western provinces and in former white-dominated areas, whereas it generally degrades water quality in other regions of the country. These results suggest the inability of the government to equitably provide the same standards of water policies nationwide and the presence of inequitable policies as legacies of apartheid at the lowest level of water policy implementation.

中文翻译：

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南非水资源管理领域水资源政策效力的差异

种族隔离制度下不公平的水资源政策的遗留问题继续影响南非经济欠发达地区和农村地区的供水服务。以往的研究通常通过使用国家层面的汇总数据进行大规模研究，或使用仅针对特定地区的省或市层面收集的数据来检验这种关系。本研究尝试使用精细尺度数据进行全国性分析，以给出南非水政策有效性的空间表示。我们使用卫星夜间光数据作为第四纪水域水平的经济发展和地表水质量的代理，以调查与水污染有关的任何收入或种族不平等，控制观察的空间依赖性。我们发现水质与经济发展之间的关系存在空间差异：经济发展改善了西部省份和原白人主导地区的水质，而其他地区的水质普遍下降。这些结果表明，政府无法在全国范围内公平地提供相同标准的水政策，并且在水政策实施的最低水平上存在作为种族隔离遗留问题的不公平政策。