WELL Factsheet: Monitoring of water supply coverage

Monitoring of water supply coverage will help to ensure water supply for the millions of people who still lack convenient access to a ‘safe’, reliable and affordable water source. According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, more than one in four people in the developing world lack access to water (WHO/UNICEF 2004). Targets have been set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to accelerate the improvement of this situation. Quantifying access through monitoring will be essential to attain such goals, although the process to achieve these goals will be as important in order to achieve sustainable coverage.

This fact sheet aims to clarify different steps involved in measuring access to water by water coverage surveys and highlight some of the problems that may affect current monitoring.

Produced by WEDC and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the Department of International Development (DFID) of the UK government (now the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)), this archive collection of WELL factsheets remains relevant. It covers topics ranging from the anaerobic treatment of municipal wastewater through to water quality and safety plans.