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:
“Now I thought I would observe how he spent his Sunday. While I and my companion were looking about at the trees and river, he went to sleep. Indeed, he improved every opportunity to get a nap, whatever the day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Oh, a friend! How true is that old saying, that the enjoyment of one is sweeter and more necessary than that of the elements of water and fire!”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and which cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful than any other.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)