African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 2006Box 5.5: Definition of some key concepts in the Republic of the Congo1 - Direct access to drinking water or sanitationThe definition of the concept «accessibility» to drinking water or to sanitation has undergone a meaningful evolution these lastyears.At the launching of DIEPA (1980), the accessibility was defined as the distance to cover on foot, or the time taken betweenone’s home and the water point or sanitation facilities.In the early 1990s (see Biblio.1), the notion of acceptable water quantity ranging from 15 to 50 litres/pers/day was included inthe definition.At the end of the 1990s, (see Biblio.2), the notion of financed accessibility linked to branching cost to the price to pay for waterand the capacity for households to pay, has been added to the initial definition.In the context of this report, two definitions will be used:2 - Direct access in the urban environment: to have a point of water drawing (SNDE branching) at home/compound, or sanitationworks.3 - Direct access in rural area: to have a point of water drawing from a village hydraulic works or sanitation works at less than500 m from home.4 - Sanitation: This notion is limited to the drainage of wastewater, excreta and rainwater.Therefore, only the following measures are considered as sanitation measures, in the framework of this rapport:• Junction to main sewer network• Junction to autonomous works (septic tanks, latrines with waterproof or improved pits)• Junction to networks of open main sewer for the evacuation of rainwater.5 Acceptable minimal water quantity: It is the minimal quantity of water considered as necessary to meet the priority and vitalneeds of humans. For the Republic of the Congo, the acceptable minimum quantity is 20 litres/day/personIn order to properly evaluate the performance ofa community water-supply system, a number offactors must be considered. Some countries havedeveloped national strategies for the surveillanceand quality control of water supply systems andhave adopted quantitative service indicators forapplication at community, regional and nationallevels. These usually include:(a) Quality: The proportion of samples or suppliesthat comply with guideline values fordrinking-water quality and minimum criteriafor treatment and source protection;(b) Coverage: The percentage of the populationwith a recognizable (usually public) watersupplysystem quantity: the average volumeof water used by consumers for domesticpurposes (expressed as litres per capita perday).(c) Continuity: The percentage of the time duringwhich water is available (daily, weeklyor seasonally).(d) Cost: The tariff paid by domestic consumers.These service indicators provide the basis for settingtargets for community water supplies. Theyserve as a quantitative guide to the comparativeefficiency of water-supply agencies and provideconsumers with an objective means of measuringthe quality of the overall service and thus the degreeof public health protection afforded. In Burundi,for example, general access to urban watersupply is estimated at 97 per cent but when qualityis considered, through improved assessment,the figure comes to about 76 per cent (AWDRNational Report, 2003). In the case of sanitationcoverage, the difference of about 67.7 per centbetween access to general sanitation (89.4 percent) and hygienic sanitation (21.7 per cent) issurprisingly large. Noteworthy is the fact that traditionallatrines account for 87.49 per cent of the112