Water Quantity

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of the household members responsible for water collection:

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTIONS (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

(ask only those questions you have not asked in other parts of your questionnaire)

Q1: How many children and adults currently live in your household? 

A1: ............ specify the number of children  and adults

Q2: What container do you most commonly use for collecting or storing water?

A2 - specify the container's volume: ............ liters

Q3: How many of such water containers do your household members use per day for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene?

A3: ............ specify the number of containers 

(ask the following question only if you have not asked it earlier)

Q4: Where do your household members collect water for drinking, cooking, and hygiene?

A4: _

Improved Drinking Water Sources:

1) piped water into the dwelling

2) piped water into the yard / plot

3) public tap or standpipe

4) borehole / tubewell

5) protected dug well

6) protected spring

7) protected rainwater collection system

8) packaged water (from an improved source)

9) delivered water (by tanker-truck or cart from an improved source)

10) water from an emergency water treatment system

Unimproved Drinking Water Sources:

11) unprotected dug well

12) unprotected springs

13) surface water

14) other source: ................................

To calculate the indicator's value, take the following steps:

   1) count the number of households that are able to access at least 15 liters of water per person per day and their drinking water comes from safe water source(s)

   2) divide this number by the total number of respondents

   3) multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage

1) Read Sphere's Water supply standard 1: Access and water quantity for a detailed breakdown of the minimum water requirements (per person) for the three main purposes - drinking, cooking and personal hygiene. 

2) According to the Sphere Standards, “safe water” is defined as meeting the following two requirements:

• there are no faecal coliforms per 100ml at the point of delivery; and

• there is a free chlorine residual at the tap of 0.5mg per litre, and turbidity is below 5 NTU for piped supplies, trucked supplies, and any water provided when there is a risk of a diarrheal epidemic

...

3) Ensure that the data collectors count all people who currently live in the household, including people who are not regular household members, such as internally displaced persons.  

4) Ensure that the data collectors are familiar with the main types of water containers the respondents use and know their volume (number of liters).

5) ECHO's list of its Key Result Indicators (KRI) uses a different water supply indicator: "number of people having access to sufficient and safe water for domestic use". ECHO's guidance on the use of this indicator is available below. 

6) BHA phrases the indicator differently, as "estimated safe water supplied per beneficiary in liters/person/day" and "average liters/person/day collected from all sources for drinking, cooking, and hygiene". Further information is provided in BHA's guidance Emergency application guidelines below. 

7) For emergency livestock water needs, refer to Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards.