An improved drinking-water source is defined as one that, by nature of its construction or through active intervention, is likely to be protected from outside contamination, in particular from contamination with fecal matter.
To allow for international comparability of estimates for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Health Organization/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation defines "improved" drinking water sources as follows:
- Piped water into dwelling
- Piped water into yard/plot
- Public tap /standpipes
- Tubewell /boreholes
- Protected dug wells
- Protected springs
- rainwater collection
- Bottled water, if the secondary source used by the household for cooking and personal hygiene is improved
Water sources that are not considered as "improved" are:
- Unprotected dug wells
- Unprotected springs
- Vendor provided water
- Cart with small tank/drum
- Bottled water, if the secondary source used by the household for cooking and personal hygiene is unimproved
- Tanker-truck
- Surface water
Famous quotes containing the words improved, water and/or source:
“In this absence of nine years I find a great improvement in the city of New York.... Some say it has improved because I have been away. Others, and I agree with them, say it has improved because I have come back.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“By recognizing a favorable opinion of yourself, and taking pleasure in it, you in a measure give yourself and your peace of mind into the keeping of another, of whose attitude you can never be certain. You have a new source of doubt and apprehension.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)