WaterAid India Baseline Survey on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh & Development of District Profile
WaterAid India (WAI), registered as Jal Seva Charitable Foundation (JSCF), works across India to universalize access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). WAI’s work is focused on themes of drinking water security, sanitation, WASH in health and nutrition, WASH in schools, and Menstrual Hygiene Management, in rural areas and urban locations.
The study aims at establishing a baseline for WaterAid India’s 2020-25 country strategy on key change indicators, including access to WASH at the Household, Institution, and Administrative levels. In addition, the study intends to capture the knowledge, attitude, and practices adopted by the stakeholders involved. Sambodhi has undertaken the following activities to achieve the study’s objectives:
- Field testing, reviewing and refining, and translating all the survey tools in regional languages
- Developing suitable sampling techniques for the household survey
- Training the survey enumerators on all the tools and drinking water quality testing
- Setting up the deployment and approval chain
- Collecting data on WASH parameters from various stakeholders involved
- Data validation and cleaning for relevance and consistency
- Ensuring internal quality checks for the process
- Collection and processing of secondary data at the district level/ local body level to capture socio-economic and WASH parameters
- Corroborating quantitative primary data with qualitative reports and secondary data
- District Profiling of the sample states, including socio-economic status and WASH
- Perform statistical and descriptive analysis of key WASH parameters and report a descriptive narrative to WaterAid India
To better understand the current state of WASH, the baseline survey is being conducted in 18 districts across six states where the program was implemented under the new WaterAid India Country Strategy (2020-25). The survey’s components and coverage are as follows:
- A sample of 9000 households in both rural and urban areas is being interviewed to capture water access, piped water supply, quantity, quality of toilets, usage, and handwashing facilities.
- All the community water points in the sample local bodies and details on technology, functionality, and maintenance are being mapped and captured.
- Water quality tests are being performed on water samples collected from the community drinking water points, including various tests for chemical and bacterial contamination.
- The state of WASH is being understood in institutions like schools, Anganwadis, and health care facilities. This involves covering all the mentioned institutions to assess their WASH infrastructure, awareness, and compliance with the guidelines of WASH.
- A Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) survey is being carried out amongst a sample of secondary school children and Anganwadi beneficiaries.
- Key Informant Interviews (KII) with key government officials and stakeholders are also being carried out to understand measures taken about WASH.