THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

# **Box 2. How different are estimates from households surveys compared to government data?**

The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) uses the Joint Monitoring Data (JMP) coverage statistics as the main source of access data on water supply and sanitation and processes these using a standardized methodology to allow cross-country comparisons by technology rather than by improved or unimproved water supply or sanitation. These data might differ from those reported by governments. Whereas the JMP data are based on household surveys and therefore reported by users of the services, the government data are based on other methodologies. The CAR’s Directorate General of Water (DGH) calculates access by technology, multiplying the number of existing water or sanitation assets (functional or not functional) by a norm of how many people are served by each point. In the CAR the DGH data do not take into account population projections. The DGH estimated that by the end of 2009 there were 3,200 water points in the CAR. In 2010 the Water and Sanitation Public Expenditure Review estimated that for 2008 the access rate to safe water was 20 percent in rural areas, assuming 300 users per water point, 25 percent nonfunctioning water points, and 2.5 percent annual population growth.

Other factors underlying these potential differences include the definition of which technologies constitute improved access to water supply and sanitation, and the JMP’s use of several household surveys vis-à-vis the use of a single data point by several governments. Therefore, measures of progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and of the spending needed to achieve them might differ according to the data source used.

_<u>Source:</u>_ <u>AICD and World Bank 2010b.</u>

# **Challenges**

The vast majority of the population is barely on the first rung of the water and sanitation ladder with major concerns about quality of service.

Around 70 percent of the population relies on wells and boreholes as the main source of water (table 7), above the average reliance seen in comparable fragile states. The condition of the CAR’s wells and boreholes in many cases does not guarantee the provision of safe water. As of 2004 only 10 percent of the wells were disinfected on a regular basis, and the water was safe in only 47 percent of the cases, according to the Ministry of Heath. Furthermore, 92.3 percent of urban households and 98.4 percent of rural households reported not using any form of water treatment (ICASEES 2009). The challenge of improving the quality of water is more pressing when one considers that around one-fourth of the boreholes are out of service and that on average they provide water to 1,500 to 2,000 people—many more than the government’s norm of 300 people.

There is a wide disparity in access to safe water between rural and urban populations. At 52 percent of the population, urban access to standposts is 10 times higher than rural access, and at 43 percent, urban reliance on wells and boreholes is half of the level in rural areas (figure 9a). In rural areas, 95 percent of the water comes from boreholes with hand pumps (World Bank, 2010g). If one considers that only 10 percent of the water coming from wells and boreholes is safe, only 14 percent of the rural population has access to safe water versus 61 percent in urban areas. In addition, 43 percent of rural households spend between 30 minutes and 1 hour walking to fetch water versus 25 percent of their urban peers (and water is carried by women 74 percent of the time) (World Bank, 2010g).

20