Intra-household access to WASH in Uganda and Zambia: do variations exist?

This paper explores intra-household variations in access to WASH through analysis of baseline data from the Undoing Inequity project in Zambia and Uganda. The purpose of which is to explore whether differences exist between head of household and ‘vulnerable’ individuals (disabled, older or chronically ill persons) reports on access and use of WASH at the household level. The results indicate that water indicators reported by the household head e.g. use of the same water source, showed high levels of agreement between the head of household and the ‘vulnerable’ individual. On the contrary, indicators on access to sanitation facilities and consumption of drinking water showed divergence. Indicators on hygiene were found to show poor levels of agreement. These results indicate that there is a specific need to ask particular questions to vulnerable and marginalised individuals themselves in national WASH surveys in order to obtain accurate information to monitor intra-household inequalities.