Description

NDRINKWTR (HV202) reports the household's main source of water for uses other than drinking (for example, cooking and washing). Responses vary widely across surveys; see Comparability.

The information in NDRINKWTR is taken from the household record and applies to regular household residents, not temporary visitors. Researchers may wish to exclude visitors using the RESIDENT variable when women, children, or births are the unit of analysis, and using the HHRESIDENT variable when household members are the unit of analysis.

Comparability

Along with universe differences, NDRINKWTR's (HV202) response categories and, indeed, the organizing principal(s) for those response categories vary across samples. To maximize comparability across samples to the extent possible, IPUMS-DHS uses composite coding and a 4-digit coding system.

The first digit of NDRINKWTR broadly distinguishes between sources of water: 1) piped, 2) well, 3) surface water, 4) rainwater, and 5) purchased from supplier.

The second digit distinguishes broad subcategories within these initial groupings. For example, for piped water, the second digit distinguishes between water that is piped into the household's own dwelling/yard/plot, and water that is piped to somewhere else. For well water, the second digit distinguishes between unprotected/open wells, protected/covered wells, and unspecified wells (whose open or protected status is unclear).

The third and fourth digits of NDRINKWTR provide further detail within categories, with information only occasionally available. For example, well water = 2000; unprotected open well = 2100; open well in own dwelling/yard/plot = 2110; open well in own dwelling = 2111.

Various dimensions of water supply are relevant to researchers. For example, water that is piped into a public tap rather than into the dwelling requires time and labor to carry cooking or washing water back to the household. Uncovered/open wells are more likely to convey disease, such as infant diarrhea, than covered/protected wells. Only the broadest (first digit) categories are available across all, or nearly all, samples; whether the source of non-piped water is covered or uncovered is often only specified for surveys fielded since 2000.

Comparability - Standard DHS

NDRINKWTR (HV202) is a standard recode variable in DHS data for Phase 1 forward. The recode manuals state that "individual codes are country specific, but the major categories are standard." These standard major categories refer to the broad groups identified in the first digit of the IPUMS-DHS codes for NDRINKWTR.

Universe