Access to drinking water and basic sanitation is a fundamental need and a human right vital for the dignity and health of all people. The health and economic benefits of improved water supply to households and individuals are well documented. Use of an improved drinking water source is a proxy for the use of safe drinking water.
Definition:
The percentage of population using an improved drinking water source.
An improved drinking water source, by nature of its construction and design, is likely to protect the source from outside contamination, in particular from faecal matter. Improved drinking water sources include:
- Piped water into dwelling, plot or yard
- Public tap/stand pipe
- Tube well/borehole
- Protected dug well
- Protected spring and
- Rainwater collection
On the other hand, unimproved drinking water sources are:
- Unprotected drug well,
- Unprotected spring,
- Cart with small tank/drum,
- Tanker truck,
- Surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, irrigation channel ad any other surface water), and
- Bottled water (if it is not accompanied by another improved source)
Disaggregation:
Location (urban/rural)
Method of measurement
The indicator is computed as the number of people who use an improved drinking water source, urban and rural, expressed as a percentage of the total population.
The percentage of total population using an improved drinking water source is the population weighted average of the previous two numbers.
Method of estimation:
For each country, the WHO & UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation produces estimates by fitting a regression line to a series of data points from household surveys and censuses. Simple linear regression is used to estimate the proportion of the population using the following drinking water sources:
- Piped supplies on premises
- Improved drinking-water sources
- Surface water
The remaining population uses unimproved drinking-water sources.
Separate regressions are used for urban and rural areas with respective populations added to generate consistent national, regional and global estimates.
The most recent household survey or census available for most countries was typically conducted two to six years ago.
As in previous reports, the JMP extends the regression line by at most two years to provide estimates that can be compared for a single year. Beyond this point the estimates remain unchanged for up to four years unless coverage is below 5 per cent or above 95 per cent, in which case the line is extended indefinitely.
Predominant type of statistics: adjusted and predicted
Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
Regional estimates are weighted averages of the country data, using the number of population for the reference year in each country as the weight.
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