Mapping safe drinking water use in low- and middle-income countries
Safe drinking water access is a human right, but data on safely managed drinking water services (SMDWS) is lacking for more than half of the global population. We estimate SMDWS use in 135 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) at subnational levels with a geospatial modeling approach, combining existing household survey data with available global geospatial datasets. We estimate that only one in three people used SMDWS in LMICs in 2020 and identified fecal contamination as the primary limiting factor affecting almost half of the population of LMICs. Our results are relevant for raising awareness about the challenges and limitations of current global monitoring approaches and demonstrating how globally available geospatial data can be leveraged to fill data gaps and identify priority areas in LMICs.
Authors
- Rick Johnston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1711-412X)
- Robert Bain (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6577-2923)
- Ayça Dönmez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3875-7861)
- Timothy R. Julian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1000-0306)
- Johan van den Hoogen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6624-8461)
- T. Bruce Lauber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3118-432X)
- Thomas Ward Crowther (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5674-8913)
- Esther E. Greenwood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6376-3134)
Institutions
- United Nations Children's Fund (US)
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (CH)
- University of Basel (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- World Health Organization (CH)
- Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (CH)
- Middle East University (JO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2024-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh9578
- Citations
- 100
- Primary Topic
- Urban Stormwater Management Solutions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 20.57