The Global Indicator Library

How the mWater Global Indicator Library helps achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 

By Amanda Gibbins

In the Sustainable Development Goal 2017 baseline, it was estimated that more than 1.8 billion people drink recalls contaminated water and 2.3 billion people lack access to even a basic sanitation facility.

Improving water standards is not just a matter of guesswork. To be successful, all of the work in this sector must be based on reliable, standardized data. 

The mWater Global Indicator Library is set up to make it easy for our users to measure and analyse progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal targets. A simple click will add WHO/UNICEF JMP standardized questions to your survey - and once your survey is completed, our portal will automatically determine your service level!

https://portal.mwater.co/#/indicators

https://portal.solsticeinstitute.com/#/indicators

If you are planning a survey, the mWater Global Indicator Library is a valuable free resource. 

What is an indicator? 

Indicators indicate the status of different aspects of water quality and service provision. For example:

  • Water point functionality 

  • E. coli levels in water 

  • Chloride levels in water 

  • Water service provision levels 

  • Sanitation service provision levels  

And many more. 

How does an indicator help me with my survey? 

You can search the library to find indicators of interest to your planned survey, and then click to add the questions listed on the indicator page to your survey. This ensures you will be asking the standardized questions, and can compare your data to that gathered by other surveys. 

SDG 6.2b - Hygiene service ladder

For example, the Hygiene Service Ladder indicator shown above collects data for five different properties, and uses this data to calculate the hygiene service level.

Collect standardised household-level survey data and get an automatically calculated service level.

How do I use the mWater Global Indicator Library? 

Most of the indicators are filed by Sustainable Development Goals. For example, if you wanted your survey to investigate a water related issue, you would click the icon for SDG6 then look through the available options. 

When you click on a topic you’re interested in, the indicator page will open. Inside you will find:

  • Definition 

    Explains what the indicator is for and what it is intending to track 

  • References 

    Links to relevant documentation 

  • Properties 

    The data fields that are collected by enumerators, or calculated in the indicator.

  • Calculations 

    Displays the exact logic used to calculate some properties 

  • Question set(s) 

    The questions used to complete the data fields. In some situations, you can choose a question set to suit your context. 

How do I add indicator questions to my survey? 

At mWater we have made it easy for you to bring indicator questions into your survey. 

  1. For new surveys. Go to the mWater Global Indicator Library, open an indicator and click the button on the page to create a survey based on that indicator. 

  2. For existing surveys. Find your chosen indicator from the indicator library pane of your survey page, then add it to the survey.

All questions needed for that indicator will be added to your survey. If you are worried about making the right choice, we have created a section labeled ‘recommended indicators’. 

You can add questions for more than one indicator to your survey.

Visualising your indicator data to guide management decisions

Once you have gathered survey data, using your questions from the Global Indicator Library, the next step is to visualise that indicator data on the mWater or Solstice platform.

The mWater and Solstice platforms hold Indicators as a separate data source which you can select when you are building dashboards, maps, consoles, or data grids. That makes it easy to display results such as:

  • Progress towards the indicator over time.

  • Aggregated results such as the percentage of functional water points per district.

  • Results by school, healthcare facility, or community.

This is a powerful way to display your impact and results to a wider audience, whilst focused on your SDG or organisational KPI priorities.

If you would like to watch a more in-depth tutorial on using the mWater Global Indicator Library, take a look at our YouTube channel.

A peek inside our Indicator Library

SDG 6.1 - Drinking Water Service

Target: By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.

Indicator: Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services.

A safely managed drinking water service is one that is:

  • accessible on premises (located in the home or yard / plot)

  • Available when needed, and

  • Free from contamination

The UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Drinking Water and Sanitation (JMP) has defined a series of levels on drinking water access, called the Service Ladder. Set questions for each setting (household, school, healthcare facility) are used by our system to determine their service ladder level. For each set of core questions, there is also a set of expanded questions that can provide additional information about the services.

The current core questions for household surveys are:

  • Please record the GPS location of the household

  • What is the main source of drinking water for members of your household?

    • Piped into dwelling

    • Piped into compound, yard or plot

    • Piped to neighbour

    • Public tap / standpipe

    • Borehole or tube well

    • Protected dug well

    • Unprotected dug well

    • Protected spring

    • Unprotected spring

    • Rainwater collection

    • Tanker-truck

    • Cart with small tank / drum

    • Water kiosk

    • Bottled water

    • Sachet water

    • Surface water (river, stream, dam, lake, pond, canal, irrigation channel)

    • Other (specify)

  • What is the main source of water used by members of your household for other purposes, such as cooking and hand washing?

    • Piped into dwelling

    • Piped into compound, yard or plot

    • Piped to neighbour

    • Public tap / standpipe

    • Borehole or tube well

    • Protected dug well

    • Unprotected dug well

    • Protected spring

    • Unprotected spring

    • Rainwater collection

    • Tanker-truck

    • Cart with small tank / drum

    • Water kiosk

    • Surface water (river, stream, dam, lake, pond, canal, irrigation channel)

    • Bottled water

    • Sachet water

    • Other (specify)

  • Where is that water source located?

    • In own dwelling

    • In own plot / yard

    • Elsewhere

  • How long does it take to go there, get water, and come back?

  • In the last month, has there been any time when your household did not have sufficient quantities of drinking water?

    • Yes, at least once

    • No, always sufficient

    • Don’t know

  • Can you please show me where the members of your household collect drinking water so that I can test the water quality?

The survey then goes onto a set of questions for the enumerator to answer based on their test results. Tests are done for e.coli and TTC.

Petri mWater