Improved Water Source Data

According to The World Bank, an 'improved water source' is a drinking water source from "piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user’s dwelling, plot or yard), and other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection)" (Worldbank.org).

Access to an improved water source is an important metric to follow, partly because it is one of the indicators used in the Millennium Development Goals.  'Ensure Environmental Sustainability' is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals and decreasing the number of people without an improved water source is one of the targets within that goal (un.org).

This metric is also a baseline metric for other water quality measurements.  The 'improved' classification for water sources is one step in what the World Health Organization and UNICEF have called the "water quality monitoring ladder, or pyramid" (WHO / UNICEF, pg. 12).  Above and beyond the improved or unimproved classification are water quality classes based on testing for chloroforms, testing for e coli, testing for chemicals and establishing a robust national water quality reporting service.

Data on the percentage of households with an 'improved water source' is available through the World Bank open data portal.  Their publicly available data on improved water source distinguished between urban and rural households.  Analyzing this data, I found that across 2005 and 2012, the percentage of urban households with an improved water source was 12.97% higher than the percentage of rural households with an improved water source (link).



References
Improved Water Source, World Bank.  Accessed from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.H2O.SAFE.ZS.

JMP Monitoring Drinking Water Quality Task Force Meeting Report, WHO / UNICEF (2010).  Accessed from: http://www.wssinfo.org/documents/?tx_displaycontroller[type]=reference_documents

Water Supply and Sanitation: Sector Results Profile, World Bank.  Accessed from: http://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2013/04/12/water-sanitation-results-profile (2015)

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability, United Nations.  Accessed from: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/environ.shtml (2015)