Global water research and monitoring typically focus on the household's “main source of drinking‐water.” Use of multiple water sources to meet daily household needs has been noted in many developing countries but rarely quantified or reported in detail. We gathered self‐reported data using a cross‐sectional survey of 405 households in eight communities of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and five Solomon Islands (SI) communities. Over 90% of households used multiple sources, with differences in sources and uses between wet and dry seasons. Most RMI households had large rainwater tanks and rationed stored rainwater for drinking throughout the dry season, whereas most SI households collected rainwater in small pots, precluding storage across seasons. Use of a source for cooking was strongly positively correlated with use for drinking, whereas use for cooking was negatively correlated or uncorrelated with nonconsumptive uses (e.g., bathing). Dry season water uses implied greater risk of water‐borne disease, with fewer (frequently zero) handwashing sources reported and more unimproved sources consumed. Use of multiple sources is fundamental to household water management and feasible to monitor using electronic survey tools. We contend that recognizing multiple water sources can greatly improve understanding of household‐level and community‐level climate change resilience, that use of multiple sources confounds health impact studies of water interventions, and that incorporating multiple sources into water supply interventions can yield heretofore‐unrealized benefits. We propose that failure to consider multiple sources undermines the design and effectiveness of global water monitoring, data interpretation, implementation, policy, and research.
Pacific Island Countries (PICs) lag behind global trends in water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) development. We conducted a systematic search of all English language papers (published before February 2015) about WaSH in PICs to evaluate the state of the peer-reviewed literature and explore thematic findings. A total of 121 papers met the criteria for full-text review following an initial search result of more than 6000 papers. Two reviewers independently assessed the quality and relevance of each article and consolidated their findings according to four emergent themes: public health, environment, emergency response and interventions, and management and governance. Findings indicate a knowledge gap in evidence-guided WaSH management strategies that advocate for human health while concurrently protecting and preserving drinking water resources. Extreme weather events threaten the quantity and quality of limited freshwater resources, and cultural factors that are unique to PICs present challenges to hygiene and sanitation. This review highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the peer-reviewed literature on WaSH in PICs, addresses spatial and temporal publication trends, and suggests areas in need of further research to help PICs meet development goals.
Abstract:The investigation of multiple sources in household water management is considered overly complicated and time consuming using paper and pen interviewing (PAPI). We assess the advantages of computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). We adapted an existing PAPI survey on multiple water sources and expanded it to incorporate location of water use and the impacts of extreme weather events using SurveyCTO on Android tablets. We then compared the efficiency and accuracy of data collection using the PAPI version (n = 44) with the CAPI version (n = 291), including interview duration, error rate and trends in interview duration with enumerator experience. CAPI surveys facilitated high-quality data collection and were an average of 15.2 min faster than PAPI. CAPI survey duration decreased by 0.55% per survey delivered (p < 0.0001), whilst embedded skip patterns and answer lists lowered data entry error rates, relative to PAPI (p < 0.0001). Large-scale household surveys commonly used in global monitoring and evaluation do not differentiate multiple water sources and uses. CAPI equips water researchers with a quick and reliable tool to address these knowledge gaps and advance our understanding of development research priorities.
This is a repository copy of Climate adaptation for rural water and sanitation systems in the Solomon Islands: A community scale systems model for decision support.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.