Global Monitoring of Water Supply and Sanitation: History, Methods and Future Challenges

Jamie Bartram, Clarissa Brocklehurst, Michael B. Fisher, Rolf Luyendijk, Rifat Hossain, Tessa Wardlaw and Bruce Gordon
Additional contact information
Jamie Bartram: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Clarissa Brocklehurst: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Michael B. Fisher: Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Rolf Luyendijk: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), New York, NY 10017, USA
Rifat Hossain: Division of Public Health and the Environment, World Health Organization, Geneva 1211, Switzerland
Tessa Wardlaw: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), New York, NY 10017, USA
Bruce Gordon: Division of Public Health and the Environment, World Health Organization, Geneva 1211, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-29

Abstract: International monitoring of drinking water and sanitation shapes awareness of countries’ needs and informs policy, implementation and research efforts to extend and improve services. The Millennium Development Goals established global targets for drinking water and sanitation access; progress towards these targets, facilitated by international monitoring, has contributed to reducing the global disease burden and increasing quality of life. The experiences of the MDG period generated important lessons about the strengths and limitations of current approaches to defining and monitoring access to drinking water and sanitation. The methods by which the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of WHO and UNICEF tracks access and progress are based on analysis of data from household surveys and linear regression modelling of these results over time. These methods provide nationally representative and internationally comparable insights into the drinking water and sanitation facilities used by populations worldwide, but also have substantial limitations: current methods do not address water quality, equity of access, or extra-household services. Improved statistical methods are needed to better model temporal trends. This article describes and critically reviews JMP methods in detail for the first time. It also explores the impact of, and future directions for, international monitoring of drinking water and sanitation.

Keywords: water; sanitation; monitoring; JMP; international; method; WHO; UNICEF; Millennium; MDG (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/8/8137/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/8/8137/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:11:y:2014:i:8:p:8137-8165:d:39056

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().