Investigating Improved Drinking Water Quality at the Point of Access: Evidence from Four Regions of Indonesia

To meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.1.1, indicator of the 'proportion of the population using safely managed drinking water services (SMDWS)', data are needed on the state of drinking water quality in Indonesia. Therefore, a cluster survey was conducted in 2019 to investigate the access to, availability of, and quality of drinking water from 870 improved drinking water sources (IDWS) in four regions. The methods in this study involved sanitary inspection, assessment of household water management and water quality examination. Based on four levels of sanitary risks determined by World Health Organization, the IDWS in Sumatra had the highest low-risk factor among the four regions. Compliance with the national standards of total coliforms and Escherichia coli was only 21.49 and 42.64%, respectively. Moreover, the proportion of SMDWS was 35.9%, which was higher than the previous Indonesian surveys in 2015 and 2020. These findings indicate that bacteriological contamination was present in the IDWS and sanitary risk factors were a good predictor of drinking water quality based on bivariate analyses. The study suggested that proper implementation of drinking water surveillance through sanitary inspection, water quality testing and remedial actions of non-piped water sources is imperative towards achieving SDG 6.1.1.