Accounting for water quality in monitoring access to safe drinking-water as part of the Millennium Development Goals: lessons from five countries
Rob ES Bain, Stephen W Gundry, Jim A Wright, Hong Yang, Steve Pedley & Jamie K Bartram
Volume 90, Number 3, March 2012, 228-235A
Table 2. Compliance of drinking-water sources with WHO guidelines on contamination in five countries, Rapid Assessment of Drinking-Water Quality project, 2004–2005
| Improved drinking-water source type,a by country | Population coverageb (%) | Microbial compliancec |
Overall complianced |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compliant sources (%) | Sources sampled (n) | Compliant sources (%) | Sources sampled (n) | |||
| Ethiopia | ||||||
| Piped supply from a public utility | 19.8 | 87.6 | 838 | 80.4 | 832 | |
| Borehole | 5.1 | 67.9 | 290 | 65.6 | 270 | |
| Protected spring | 7.0 | 43.3 | 319 | 43.3 | 313 | |
| Protected dug well | 5.0 | 54.8 | 155 | 54.8 | 155 | |
| Total | 36.9 | – | 1602 | – | 1570 | |
| Jordan | ||||||
| Piped supply from a public utility | 93.4 | 99.9 | 1639 | 97.8 | 1639 | |
| Other improved sourcee | 4.5 | NA | 0 | NA | 0 | |
| Total | 97.9 | – | 1639 | – | 1639 | |
| Nicaragua | ||||||
| Piped supply from a public utility | 69.0f | 89.9 | 335 | 89.1g | 335 | |
| Community supply | 6.6f | 39.0 | 265 | 38.6g | 265 | |
| Borehole or tube well | 4.6f | 45.7 | 442 | 41.6g | 442 | |
| Protected dug well | 3.9f | 19.3 | 446 | 18.5g | 446 | |
| Other improved sourcee | 0.1f | NA | 0 | NA | 0 | |
| Total | 84.1f | – | 1488 | – | 1488 | |
| Nigeria | ||||||
| Piped supply from a public utility | 19.6 | 77.0 | 630 | 77.0 | 630 | |
| Borehole or tube well | 14.7 | 94.0 | 525 | 86.0 | 525 | |
| Protected dug well | 12.9 | 56.0 | 424 | 51.0 | 424 | |
| Total | 47.2 | – | 1579 | – | 1579 | |
| Tajikistan | ||||||
| Piped supply from a public utility | 58.4 | 88.6 | 1286 | 88.2 | 1286 | |
| Protected spring | 9.6 | 82.0 | 334 | 82.0 | 334 | |
| Other improved sourcee | 1.2 | NA | 0 | NA | 0 | |
| Total | 69.2 | – | 1620 | – | 1620 | |
NA, not available; WHO, World Health Organization.
a The Rapid Assessment of Drinking-Water Quality (RADWQ) project assessed only water source types classified as improved by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.
b The percentage of the population receiving drinking-water from each source in 2004 to 2005 was estimated from RADWQ project reports.
c Compliance with WHO guidelines on drinking-water contamination with thermotolerant coliform bacteria.
d Compliance with WHO guidelines on drinking-water contamination with thermotolerant coliforms, arsenic, fluoride and nitrates.
e Apart from in the Nicaraguan study, types of improved water source used by less than 5% of the population were not sampled during the RADWQ project.
f Since, unlike reports for other countries, the RADWQ report for Nicaragua did not record the proportion of unimproved sources, Joint Monitoring Programme figures were used to estimate population coverage in the country.
g Since overall compliance was not recorded in the RADWQ report for Nicaragua, overall compliance was estimated from separate chemical and microbial compliance figures on the assumption that the two were independent.