Microsoft Word - AMICS-29Jan2013 - Childinfo.org

In Afghanistan, only 20% of household members are using an appropriate treatment for
drinking water. Of those who treat their drinking water, 13% boil the water, 5% add bleach
or chlorine, 1% strain the water through a cloth, and 1% use solar disinfection. In urban
areas, 30% of household members and 14% of household members in rural areas apply any
form of treatment to their drinking water. The proportion of household members using
appropriate treatment for drinking water is positively associated with socio-economic
background characteristics.
Among households using unimproved drinking water sources, only 15% of household
members apply an appropriate treatment to drinking water, and significant differences were
found across household members background characteristics. A higher percentage of those
treating unimproved drinking water sources was found in urban areas, among the educated
population, and among the population living in wealthier households. The population in the
Central Highlands region has the highest proportion of people who appropriately treat their
drinking water collected from unimproved sources (36%), compared to their counterparts
in the Western region, where it is only 4%, the lowest among all the regions.
Time to Source of Drinking Water
The amount of time it takes to obtain water is presented in Table 7.3 and the person from
the household who usually collects the water is shown in Table 7.4. Note that these results
refer to one round trip from the home to the drinking water source. Information on the
number of trips made in one day was not collected.
Table 7.3: Time to source of drinking water
Percent distribution of household population according to time to go to source of drinking water, get water and return, for users of improved and unimproved
drinking water sources, Afghanistan, 2010-2011
Region
Time to source of drinking water
Users of improved drinking water sources Users of unimproved drinking water sources Number
Total
Water on
premises
Less than
30
minutes
30
minutes
or more
Missing/DK
Water on
premises
Less than
30 minutes
30 minutes
or more
Missing/DK
of
household
members
Central 47.1 17.9 3.9 0.4 6.8 20.0 3.1 0.8 100.0 16,232
Central
Highlands
2.9 18.0 4.3 0.1 3.1 47.2 24.2 0.2 100.0 3,449
East 32.0 23.7 6.4 0.3 6.6 16.3 13.5 1.3 100.0 11,335
North 13.2 26.8 5.2 0.1 8.9 32.2 13.5 0.1 100.0 14,055
North East 15.3 19.8 9.0 0.1 9.4 23.2 22.9 0.3 100.0 16,557
South 46.3 7.1 4.2 2.0 25.5 9.3 3.5 2.0 100.0 13,825
South East 49.6 13.7 3.2 0.6 9.2 13.9 5.2 4.7 100.0 12,867
West 33.6 17.4 6.6 1.7 12.5 15.4 10.3 2.6 100.0 13,393
Residence
Urban 66.5 11.3 4.2 0.3 7.7 5.6 3.7 0.7 100.0 18,000
Rural 25.2 19.5 5.8 0.8 11.7 22.9 12.4 1.7 100.0 83,713
Education of household head
None 27.8 17.9 6.0 0.8 12.2 21.4 12.3 1.5 100.0 69,034
Primary 30.2 21.8 6.1 0.4 8.6 20.8 11.7 0.5 100.0 11,529
Secondary + 49.0 16.2 3.7 0.6 8.2 14.3 5.8 2.2 100.0 21,099
Wealth index quintile
Poorest 7.4 13.8 7.9 1.4 10.7 31.8 23.9 3.1 100.0 20,338
72