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Background
 Water-related
diseases continue to be one of the major health problems globally.
Diarrhoeal diseases are the second most important contributor to
the disease burden in developing countries, accounting for 8.1%
of the disease burden in 1990 (Murray and Lopez, 1996). One of the
major strategies for tackling this problem is the installation of
protected water sources such as boreholes, standpipes, or protected
wells. However, in many developing countries, particularly in rural
areas, water sources may be located some distance from the home,
requiring the storage of water within the household. It has frequently
been observed that the microbiological quality of water in vessels
in the home is lower than that at the source, suggesting that contamination
during transport and storage is widespread. Such post-collection
contamination has been cited as a possible reason why water source
improvements have not produced anticipated gains in water quality
or in health.
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Objectives
of the AQUAPOL project:
The overall objectives of the AQUAPOL project are:
- To establish whether rural water policy
takes adequate account of the deterioration in quality between
source and point-of-use.
- To evaluate policy alternatives by assessing the relative cost
effectiveness of different types of water-related interventions.
It is targeted at the rural poor, the primary beneficiaries of
improvements in water policy.
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