Investigating improved drinking water quality at the point of access: Evidence from four regions of Indonesia

Abstract

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To meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.1.1. indicator of the ‘proportion of the population using safely managed drinking water services (SMDWS)’, data on the state of drinking water quality in Indonesia is needed. Therefore, a cluster survey was conducted in 2019 to investigate the access to, availability of, and quality of drinking water from 870 improved drinking water sources (IDWS) in four regions. The methods involved sanitary inspection, assessment of household water management and water quality examination. Based on four levels of sanitary risks determined by World Health Organization (WHO), the IDWS in Sumatra had the highest percentage of sources categorised as `low-risk' among the four regions. The percentage of samples in compliance with the national standards for total coliforms and Escherichia coli was 21.49 and 42.64%, respectively. Moreover, the percentage of SMDWS was 35.9%, which was higher than the previous Indonesian surveys in 2015 and 2020. These findings indicate that bacteriological contamination was present in the IDWS and sanitary risk factors were a good predictor of drinking water quality. The study suggests that proper implementation of drinking water surveillance through sanitary inspection, water quality testing and remedial actions of non-piped water sources is imperative towards achieving SDG 6.1.1.