Self-supplied drinking water in low- and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

There is increasing awareness of household self-supply and the role it can play in securing water for domestic needs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), but its scale across the Asia-Pacific has not previously been quantified. This study analysed 77 datasets from 26 countries to estimate the prevalence of self-supplied drinking water, and its associated trends in LMICs in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. When factoring in temporal trends, results suggest that >760 million people—or 31% of the population—relied on self-supply for their drinking water in these regions in 2018, with the number of users increasing by >9 million each year. Reliance on self-supply for drinking water is greater in rural areas than in urban areas (37% of rural population vs 20% of urban population), though results vary considerably between countries. Groundwater sources constitute the most common form of self-supply in South Asia and Southeast Asia, while rainwater collection is dominant in the Pacific. The results confirm the significance of self-supply in the Asia-Pacific and suggest that households are a major but often overlooked source of financing within the water sector. The findings raise important questions about how policy and practice should respond to this widespread phenomenon.

Urban Self-Supply from Groundwater—An Analysis of Management Aspects and Policy Needs

“…The use of private water wells for urban self-supply (Figure 1) has 'mushroomed' over the past 20 years or so, especially in South Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Recent surveys suggest that private self-supply from groundwater in the urban areas of developing cities is an essential component of total water-supply [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], but one that is frequently overlooked in official figures. The phenomenon varies in level with the physical evolution and hydrogeological setting of any given city, but there is convincing evidence of an increasing dependence on private water wells in response to rapid urban population growth and escalating water demand, facilitated by the modest cost of water well drilling.…”

“…Though there may be some truth in this, there is also increasing evidence of significant pollution [28], and an adequately performing waterutility could offer a supply of more assured quality. On the other hand, the technological and financial inefficiencies of many water-utilities in the developing world leave questions as to whether this can currently be done, and at comparable cost [3,8].…”

Microbial Contamination of Groundwater Self‐Supply in Urban Indonesia: Assessment of Sanitary and Socio‐Economic Risk Factors

“…Self‐supply services are generally unregulated and unmonitored (S. Foster et al., 2022; Grönwall & Danert, 2020; Grönwall et al., 2010). In the Asia‐Pacific, it is estimated that over 700 million people depended on self‐supply across rural and urban areas in 2018 (T. Foster et al., 2021).…”

Child Melioidosis Deaths Caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei–Contaminated Borehole Water, Vietnam, 2019

“…B. pseudomallei is ubiquitously distributed in soil and surface water throughout the tropics, including in Asia, the Pacific Islands, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, where boreholes are the most common water supply in the rural areas (1,6,7). In addition to other waterborne infections (7), untreated water supplies have been implicated in previous human B. pseudomallei infections (8-10).…”