|
Millennium Development Goal 7, Target 7c, calls on countries to "Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation".
Access to drinking water and to basic sanitation is measured by the MDG indicators:
- Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source;
- Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility.
JMP is required to use these indicators as the basis of its estimates. As definitions of "access" can vary widely within and among countries and regions, and as JMP is mandated to report at global level and across time, it has created a set of categories for "improved" and "unimproved" facilities that are used to analyse the national data on which its trends and estimates are based (see below).
Improved drinking water source
An improved drinking-water source is defined as one that, by nature of its construction or through active intervention, is protected from outside contamination, in particular from contamination with faecal matter. To allow for international comparability of estimates, JMP uses the following classification to differentiate between "improved" and "unimproved" drinking-water sources.
|
|
|
Improved
|
Unimproved
|
> Piped water into dwelling, plot or yard
> Public tap/standpipe
> Tubewell / borehole
> Protected dug well
> Protected spring
> Rainwater |
> Unprotected dug well
> Unprotected spring
> Small cart with tank/drum
> Tanker truck
> Surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, channel, irrigation channel)
> Bottled water * |
|
* Bottled water is considered to be improved only when the household uses water from another improved source for cooking and personal hygiene; where this information is not available, bottled water is classified on a case-by-case basis |
|
Improved
|
Unimproved
|
Use of following facilities in home/ compound:
> Flush/pour-flush to:
- piped sewer system
- septic tank
- pit latrine
> Ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine
> Pit latrine with slab
> Composting toilet
|
Use of following facilities anywhere:
- Flush/pour flush to elsewhere
- Pit latrine without slab/open pit
- Bucket
- Hanging toilet/hanging latrine
> Use of a public facility or sharing any improved facility
> No facilities, bush or field (open defecation) |
|
|
|
Improved sanitation facilities
For MDG monitoring, an improved sanitation facility is defined as one that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact. To allow for international comparability of estimates, JMP uses the following classification to differentiate between the use of improved sanitation and use of "non-improved" sanitation.
The ladder concept
In the 2008 report, the JMP developed a new way of presenting the access figures disaggregating and refining the data on drinking-water and sanitation and reflecting them in "ladder" format.
|
