Research Paper Inclusion of water quality testing in the Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey and status of bacteriological contamination of drinking water in 10 provinces of Afghanistan Abdus Saboor, Ahmad Khalid Amarkhel, Esmatullah Hakimi, Robert Bain and Rolf Luyendijk ABSTRACT The UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey module for water testing was included in the 2016/ 2017 Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey (ALCS) for 10 of the 34 provinces. The module’s impact on the survey implementation was assessed through interviews and focus group discussions with survey teams. To assess the level of fecal contamination, drinking water from the source and at the point of consumption was tested for Escherichia coli using on-site membrane filtration. On-site testing of water generated significant interest from community members to receive water test results and understand how to keep their drinking water safe from contamination. The inclusion of the module in the ALCS facilitated access of the enumerators to both communities and households. Only 21.0% of households used safely managed drinking water services. A majority of households (58.2%) used water sources contaminated with E. coli, while E. coli contamination at the point of consumption was found in 77.0% of households. E. coli were more frequently detected in water sources used by households with unimproved sanitation. Beside improvement and increased protection of the water supply services, water quality deterioration between source and point of consumption calls for the promotion of safe handling and storage of water at the home. Key words | drinking water quality, household survey, safely managed water services, Sustainable Development Goal HIGHLIGHTS • This study suggests that inclusion of water quality module for SDG 6.1 monitoring into household surveys seems highly feasible. • E. coli contamination of drinking water was found higher at point of use than at point of collection particularly in water sources used by households with unimproved sanitation. • Only 21% of households met SDG criteria of safely managed drinking water services in 10 of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Abdus Saboor (corresponding author) Rolf Luyendijk Formerly UNICEF, Kabul, Afghanistan E-mail: saboorpcrwr@yahoo.com Ahmad Khalid Amarkhel Esmatullah Hakimi National Statistic and Information Authority, Khair Khana, Kabul, Afghanistan Robert Bain Division of Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring, UNICEF, New York, NY, USA This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 600 Research Paper © 2021 The Authors Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development | 11.4 | 2021 doi: 10.2166/washdev.2021.046 Downloaded from http://iwaponline.com/washdev/article-pdf/11/4/600/913456/washdev0110600.pdf by guest on 22 September 2021