household experience of water insecurity

The "Prevalence of household water insecurity" indicator, measured via the Household-Water Insecurity Experience (H-WISE) scales, serves to capture water access and sufficiency as directly experienced by people, complementing rather than replacing traditional technical supply metrics. Instead of relying solely on physical indicators like volume or infrastructure, or time/distance metrics, it directly assesses how water constraints affect daily life across consumption, hygiene, and psychosocial well-being, such as feelings of worry, shame, or anger. There are two sets of questions which can be used for this indicator - the 12 question set takes roughly three minutes. Or there is a 4 question version suitable for rapid assessments, making them feasible in emergency contexts where time and capacity is limited. A further strength of experiential scales is their sensitivity to differences within populations, and even within households. Men, women, children, older people, and people with disabilities often experience water access, use, and reliability differently, even within the same household. Supply-side indicators generally cannot detect these differences.

Data is collected via a household survey.  The 12-question and 4-question sets have been uploaded onto mWater as separate surveys.  However, the questions can also be integrated into existing household surveys and used at both baseline and mid/end-line points.  Tearfund’s Global WASH specialists are available to provide direct support on integrating the questions into surveys, and to provide training and support on using the mWater platform to collect and visualise the data.

The response options for each question, and the coding, are:  

• Never (on 0 days) - score 0

• Rarely (on 1 - 2 days) - score 1

• Sometimes (on 3 - 10 days) - score 2

• Often (on 11 - 20 days) - score 3

• Don’t know

The (words in brackets) at the end of each question reflect what experience aspect is being explored.

For the 12-set questions, the score ranges from 0 - 36.  After you have summed the overall score out of a maximum of 36, you can apply the following categories of water insecurity to the composite score:

High water insecurity - scores of 24 - 36

Moderate insecurity - scores of 12 - 23

Low water insecurity - scores of 3 - 11

No-to-marginal insecurity - scores of 0 -2

  The 4-question set

In the last four weeks, how frequently did you or anyone in your household worry you would not have enough water for all of your household needs?  (worry-abbreviated)

In the last four weeks, how frequently have you or anyone in your household had to change schedules or plans due to problems with your water situation?  (Activities that may have been interrupted include caring for others, doing household chores, agricultural work, income-generating activities, sleeping, etc)  (plans-abbreviated)

In the last four weeks, how frequently have you or anyone in your household had to go without washing hands after dirty activities (e.g. defecating or changing diapers, cleaning animal dung) because of problems with water?  (hands-abbreviated)

In the last four weeks, how frequently has there not been as much water to drink as you would like for you or anyone in your household?  (drink-abbreviated)

For the 4-set questions, the score ranges from 0 -12.  After you have summed the overall score out of a maximum of 12, scores of 4 and higher are indicative of moderate-to-high water insecurity.  The abbreviated scale range of 12 is too narrow to establish more than this category.  

Disaggregate by:

As the respondent is answering on behalf of themselves and members of their household, disaggregation of data is limited 

More information and guidance: reach out to Tearfund’s Global WASH Specialists and see here

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