An improved water source (or improved drinking-water source or improved water supply) is a term used to categorize certain types or levels of

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Th ...

for monitoring purposes. It is defined as a type of water source that, by nature of its construction or through active intervention, is likely to be protected from outside contamination, in particular from contamination with fecal matter. The term was coined by the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation of

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

and

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

in 2002 to help monitor the progress towards Goal Number 7 of the

Millennium Development Goals In the United Nations, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 created following the Millennium Summit, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These w ...

(MDGs). The opposite of "improved water source" has been termed "unimproved water source" in the JMP definitions. Number without safe drinking water 2020

The same terms are used to monitor progress towards

Sustainable Development Goal 6 Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6 or Global Goal 6) declares the importance of achieving "clean water and sanitation for all". It is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly to succeed the ...

(Target 6.1, Indicator 6.1.1) from 2015 onwards. Here, they are a component of the definition for "safely managed drinking water service".

Definitions

During SDG period (2015 to 2030)

Indicator 6.1.1 of SDG 6 is "Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services". The term "safely managed drinking water services" is defined as: "Drinking water from an improved water source that is located on premises, available when needed and free from fecal and priority chemical contamination". In 2017, the JMP defined a new term: "basic water service". This is defined as the drinking water coming from an improved source, and provided the collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a round trip. A lower level of service is now called "limited water service" which is the same as basic service but the collection time is longer than 30 minutes. Service levels are defined as (from lowest to highest):

Surface water Surface water is water located on top of land, forming terrestrial (surrounding by land on all sides) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as ''blue water'', opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean. The vast majority of surfac ...

, unimproved, limited, basic, safely managed.

During MDG period (2000 until 2015)

To allow for international comparability of estimates for monitoring the

(MDGs), the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation defines "improved" drinking water sources as follows: * Piped water into dwelling * Piped water into yard/plot * Public tap/ standpipes * Tubewell/

boreholes A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petr ...

* Protected dug wells * Protected springs (normally part of a

spring supply A spring supply is a provision of piped mains water to a number of consumers direct from a natural spring. Spring supplies are therefore a source of groundwater, which in most instances has fewer micro-organisms (e.g. coliform bacteria and pro ...

) * Rainwater collection{{Broken anchor, date=2024-06-28, bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration, target_link=Rainwater harvesting#Domestic rainwater systems, reason= The anchor (Domestic rainwater systems) has been deleted. *

Bottled water Bottled water is drinking water (e.g., Water well, well water, distilled water, Reverse osmosis, reverse osmosis water, mineral water, or Spring (hydrology), spring water) packaged in Plastic bottle, plastic or Glass bottle, glass water bott ...

, if the secondary source used by the household for cooking and personal hygiene is improved Water sources that are not considered as "improved" are: Washing Utensils And Vegetables

* Unprotected dug wells * Unprotected springs * Vendor provided water * Cart with small tank/drum * Bottled water, if the secondary source used by the household for cooking and personal hygiene is unimproved * Tanker-truck * Surface water

References

Water supply

Definitions

During SDG period (2015 to 2030)

During MDG period (2000 until 2015)

See also

References