Functioning and utilization of rural water supplies in Sarawak, Malaysia

A cross-sectional survey of 976 households in 41 villages covered by the Rural Health Improvement Scheme in Sarawak, Malaysia, was carried out to determine the state of functioning and utilization of rural water supplies. About one-third of the systems were functioning well, one-third imperfectly, and the remainder were no longer functioning. The overall access to water supply systems (gravity supply, pumped supply, rain water tanks, and dug wells) was 81.3 per cent. Of the households that had access to water systems, 87.1 per cent actually used them. About half of the users were dissatisfied with the quantity of water supplied, especially during the dry season. Most were satisfied with the physical quality of water, with the exception of those using dug wells because of the water's bad odour. This was reflected in the fact that 87.2 per cent never used dug well water for drinking. The study showed other variations in water use for drinking, washing plates, washing clothes, bathing, and flushing latrines for each of the water supply systems.