How far would you safe drinking water? Would you walk outside of your front door? Would you walk over to your next door neighbor? Would you walk to the next corner? Would you walk 1 kilometer or just over half a mile for safe drinking water? WHO and UNICEF defines access to safe drinking as being within 1 kilometer of your house.
Most of you understand what is safe drinking water. But you probably do not understand what it means to have access to safe drinking water.
WHO and UNICEF provide the UN system's monitoring of progress on MDG target 10. The JMP defines safe drinking water and basic sanitation as follows:
Drinking water is water used for domestic purposes, drinking, cooking and personal hygiene;
- Access to drinking water means that the source is less than 1 kilometer away from its place of use and that it is possible to reliably obtain at least 20 litres per member of a household per day;
- Safe drinking water is water with microbial, chemical and physical characteristics that meet WHO guidelines or national standards on drinking water quality;
- Access to safe drinking water is the proportion of people using improved drinking water sources: household connection; public standpipe; borehole; protected dug well; protected spring; rainwater.
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