Water Quality and Consumer Perception Dataset for the Development of a Distribution Network Water Quality Index (DNWI)

This dataset contains survey data on consumer perception and household water-use practices collected from users of three urban drinking water supply systems in southern Ecuador. The survey was designed to assess user perceptions regarding water quality attributes, including taste, odor, color, service continuity, interruptions, sediment occurrence, and overall satisfaction with the drinking water service. Additionally, information on household practices such as boiling, filtering, and bottled water consumption was collected. These data were used to evaluate the relationship between technical water quality conditions and consumer perception and to support the development and validation of the Distribution Network Water Quality Index (DNWI) presented in the associated manuscript. The repository also includes the R scripts used for data cleaning, statistical analysis, reliability assessment (Cronbach’s alpha), correlation analysis, hypothesis testing, and graphical visualization, ensuring the transparency, reproducibility, and verification of the results reported in the study.