Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2007

This 511 page DHS report, Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2007 (pdf, full-text) was just released. Below are excerpts from the sections on Drinking Water and Household Sanitation

P. 22 – 2.4.1 Drinking Water

Increasing access to improved drinking water is one of the Millennium Development Goals that Zambia and other nations worldwide have adopted (United Nations General Assembly, 2001). Table 2.6 includes a number of indicators that are useful in monitoring household access to improved drinking water (WHO and UNICEF, 2005). The source of drinking water is an indicator of whether it is suitable for drinking. Sources that are likely to provide water suitable for drinking are identified as improved sources in Table 2.6. They include a piped source within the dwelling or plot, public tap, tube well or borehole, and protected well or spring.1 Lack of ready access to water may limit the quantity of suitable drinking water that is available to a household, even if the water is obtained from an improved source. Water that must be fetched from a source that is not immediately accessible to the household may be contaminated during transport or storage. Another factor in considering the accessibility of water sources is that the burden of fetching water often falls disproportionately on female members of the household. Finally, home water treatment can be effective in improving the quality of household drinking water.

The table shows that only 41 percent of the households have access to improved sources of water. Households in urban areas are more likely to have access to improved sources of water than those in rural areas (83 percent compared with 19 percent). More than half of the households (56 percent) draw their water from an unimproved source. Almost half of the households in urban areas (49 percent) have water on their premises, while about one in every ten households (8 percent) in rural areas have water on their premises. Overall, 23 percent of the households take 30 or more minutes to obtain water; 8 percent in urban areas compared with 30 percent in the rural areas.

It can also be observed that adult females collect drinking water more often than adult males (66 and 7 percent, respectively). Results also show that both male and female children below age 15 are involved in collecting drinking water. Most of the households (65 percent) do not treat their water, while only 34 percent use an appropriate method to treat their water. Bleach, chlorine or Clorin use and boiling are the most common methods used by households for water treatment (27 and 15 percent, respectively). Treating drinking water with Clorin, a locally produced solution of 0.5% sodium hypochlorite, is promoted throughout Zambia to make the water safer to drink. Table 2.7 shows that 91 percent of Zambians have heard of Clorin. The sources of where Clorin messages are heard differ by urban and rural residence. Forty percent of respondents living in urban areas have heard Clorin messages on the radio, compared with only 17 percent in rural areas. Respondents living in rural areas are informed of Clorin primarily at health facilities (38 percent). Overall, 13 percent of respondents use Clorin, of which 24 percent are in urban areas and 8 percent are in rural areas.

P. 24 – Household Sanitation

Ensuring adequate sanitation facilities is another of the Millennium Development Goals that Zambia shares with other countries. A household is classified as having an improved toilet if the toilet is used only by members of one household (i.e., it is not shared) and if the facility used by the household separates the waste from human contact (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, 2004).

Table 2.8 shows that almost four in ten households in Zambia (39 percent) use pit latrines that are open or have no slab: 27 percent in urban areas and 45 percent in rural areas. Flush toilets are mainly found in urban areas and are used by 26 percent of households, compared with 1 percent in rural areas. Overall, 25 percent of households in Zambia have no toilet facilities. This problem is more common in rural areas (37 percent) than in urban areas (2 percent).