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:
“A friend and I flew south with our children. During the week we spent together I took off my shoes, let down my hair, took apart my psyche, cleaned the pieces, and put them together again in much improved condition. I feel like a car that’s just had a tune-up. Only another woman could have acted as the mechanic.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. “What!” he said, “Must we void ourselves as we run?” Use our time as best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The act of birth is the first experience of anxiety, and thus the source and prototype of the affect of anxiety.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)