rapid assessment of drinking-water quality in the republic of tajikistan

Measuring gender disparities. Data on water and sanitation are collected at the household level
and therefore gender-specific data cannot be calculated. However, questions can be designed to
determine who bears the main responsibility for collecting water and how much time is spent
collecting it. Questions along these lines are being incorporated into the design of new surveys.
Measuring water quality. Existing surveys do not provide reliable information on the quality of
water, either at the source or at the household level.
In response to the third challenge, WHO and UNICEF, with the support of the Department for
International Development of the Government of the United Kingdom, developed a method for the
rapid assessment of drinking-water quality. Pilot studies using the method, referred to as RADWQ
(rapid assessment of drinking-water quality), have been carried out in China, Ethiopia, Jordan,
Nicaragua, Nigeria and Tajikistan. The six pilot countries represent different regions of the world
with a range of environmental and socio-economic conditions, presenting different water quality
issues and at various stages of development.
At the conception of the RADWQ pilot studies it was foreseen that the methodology, if proved
feasible and successful, could be of value to many countries as a vehicle for building capacity in water
quality monitoring at policy, institutional and technical levels. The direct involvement of water
authorities and national experts in the studies was also expected to enhance a sense of ownership.
Countries could benefit from RADWQ surveys by using the data to create a baseline for future
monitoring programmes (e.g. post-2015); for external evaluations; to assess the drinking-water quality
in specific geographical areas; or to assess a specific drinking-water supply technology. The
RADWQ approach would also provide the international community with the tools to measure
improvements in access to safe drinking-water worldwide.
1.2 Historical water-quality data, the current water-quality surveillance/monitoring system
and national standards in Tajikistan
The Republican Sanitary Epidemiological Service (Republican SES), the central public-health
surveillance agency under the Ministry of Health of Tajikistan, provided the information on water
supply coverage and drinking-water quality for the RADWQ project. The Republican SES collects all
information from the regional (or oblast) SESs in the oblasts of Khatlon, Sughd and Gorno-
Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), as well as directly from the district (or rayon) SESs in
those rayons that are under direct republican subordination (known as RRSs).
Types of water-supply technologies and coverage
A summary of the types of water supply technologies used in the different oblasts and the population
coverage rates is given in Table 1.2. According to Republican SES statistics, at the time of the study
approximately 58% of the total population was served by utility piped water supplies, but coverage
for urban populations (99%) was much higher than for rural ones (30%). People without utility piped
supplies rely on water from more-or-less protected point sources, such as boreholes, shallow wells,
and springs (ca. 13%), or from open sources (25.8%) such as small canals (“ariks”), irrigation
channels, rivers, lakes and transported water (2.4%), without any treatment prior to consumption.
In addition to the information shown in Table 1.2, a rayon database of springs and utility piped
supplies was compiled for the RADWQ project, which detailed the number of supplies in a rayon as
well as the population served by technology (see Annex 1). A detailed inventory of utility piped
supplies was also available that included information on the maximum serving capacity (expressed as
the number of people served) and the current working condition of an individual supply (see Annex 2).
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