Baseline Study for Household Water Supply and Sanitation in Rural Areas (Lilongwe, Machinga, Mulanje and Zomba Districts)

The rural water baseline study was carried out in rural areas of Lilongwe, Machinga, Mulanje and Zomba Districts and 12 market centres to establish benchmarck indicators for which to measure the impact of the National Water Development Programme on improving access to potable water and sanitation services in the rural areas. Further, the study reviewed current challenges associated with water use, supply and sanitation inthe four districts and market centres. A combination of approaches was used for the study including (i) collection and review of secondary literature from different sources and (ii) conducting reconnaissance and household surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KII). The household survey covered a total of 1758 randomly selected households from Lilongwe (601), Machinga (496), Mulanje (225) and Zomba (329). In addition, 282 households were interviewed in 12 market centres in the four districts. The dataverse provides all the survey data, GIS Water Points, FGD transcripts and reports from the study.