OR/16/044 Executive summary

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Wilson P, Bonsor H C, MacDonald A M, Whaley L, Carter R C, Casey V. 2016. UPGRO Hidden Crisis Research consortium: initial project approach for assessing rural water supply functionality and levels of performance. British Geological Survey (BGS) Open Report, OR/16/044.

The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set a much stronger focus on sustainability and performance of water services, and have highly ambitious goals to achieve universal access to safe and reliable water for all by 2030 (UN 20131)[note 1]. Poor functionality of water points threatens to undermine progress, and a lack of knowledge for the reasons behind this make it difficult to recommend improvements and take corrective action. As a first step it is necessary to be able to reliably monitor current rates of functionality and to have a clear benchmark as to what constitutes a functional water point. Currently, there is no single accepted definition for functionality, although organisations are working towards this as a means of tracking progress towards the SDGs.

This report sets out the initial work by the Hidden Crisis project to develop a framework approach to assess functionality in terms of different levels of performance, and a set of standard indicators which can be used to assess functionality. The report presents the results of a literature review examining the following questions: (1) what are the current approaches to defining functionality of hand‐pump boreholes; and (2) what are the robust standards by which the functionality of a HPB, or population of HPB’s, can be assessed. From analyses of the literature we have developed preliminary guidelines and applied these to develop a preliminary framework.

Guidelines for assessing functionality

Within Hidden Crisis Project we suggest the following guidelines for assessing functionality:

  • Functionality should be measured against an explicitly stated standard and population of water points.
  • It should be measured separately from the users’ experience of the service it provides.
  • The assessments should be tiered, allowing for further information, but always being able to be reduced to a simple measure.
  • A distinction should be made between surveying functionality as a snapshot (e.g. for national metrics) and monitoring individual water point performance (including a temporal aspect).

Defining functionality

The Hidden Crisis project has applied these guidelines to develop a framework approach to define functionality in terms of different levels of performance. This starts with a basic ‘working yes/no’ definition, and moves to a more detailed understanding of the reliability and yield of supply (see Figure 1). The final level introduces water quality to the performance assessment. As such the project examines the following definitions of functionality:

  1. Basic  — is the water point working (yes/no)
  2. Snapshot  — does the water point work and provide sufficient yield (10 L/min) on the day of the survey
  3. Functionality performance  — does the water point provide sufficient yield (10 L/min) on the day of survey, is it reliable (<30 days downtime in last year) or abandoned (not worked in past year)?
  4. Functionality including water quality as 3 above, and also passes WHO inorganic parameters, and TTC standards.

Each of these definitions requires different amounts of data to be collected impacting the duration of survey. The ‘Basic’ and ‘Snapshot’ assessments reflect the requirements of national survey assessments, whilst the more performance‐focused definitions are more relevant to local or regional surveys looking to track the functionality of individual water points or programmes through time.

Standard approaches will be used to assess the different levels of functionality within the project.

A survey of 600 hand‐pumped boreholes across three countries in the first Survey phase of the Hidden Crisis project will:

  • provide a suite interdisciplinary field data to examine the impact of using different definitions (i.e. levels of performance);
  • establish data on the different levels of functionality of hand‐pump equipped boreholes and the performance of the local water management committee;
  • Provide a more nuanced understanding of the current functionality in each of the three countries in terms of performance levels.

The understanding and insights developed from the Survey 1 analysis, will inform the final framework approach proposed by the Hidden Crisis project to assess functionality. This will be a repeatable and robust framework which can be used by future surveys and studies, and can inform a single agreed international standard on assessing functionality.

Figure 1 A schematic diagram showing the proposed working categories of functionality performance (category 3 above) used in the Survey 1 analysis. These categories will be developed, and may evolve through the project.

Footnote

  1. UN Water. 2013. A Post‐2025 Global Goal on Water. 2013.