Reducing inequalities is a priority from a human rights perspective and in water and public health initiatives.
There are periodic calls for differential national and global standards for rural and urban areas, often justified
by the suggestion that, for a given water source type, safety is worse in urban areas. For instance, initially
proposed post-2015 water targets included classifying urban but not rural protected dug wells as unimproved.
The objectives of this study were to: (i) examine the influence of urban extent definition on water safety in
Nigeria, (ii) compare the frequency of thermotolerant coliform (TTC) contamination and prevalence of sanitary
risks between rural and urban water sources of a given type and (iii) investigate differences in exposure to contaminated
drinking-water in rural and urban areas.Weuse spatially referenced data froma Nigerian national randomized
sample survey of five improvedwater source types to assess the extent of any disparities in urban–rural
safety. We combined the survey data on TTC and sanitary risk with map layers depicting urban versus rural areas
according to eight urban definitions. When examining water safety separately for each improved source type,we
found no significant urban–rural differences in TTC contamination and sanitary risk for groundwater sources
(boreholes and protected dug wells) and inconclusive findings for piped water and stored water. However,
when improved and unimproved source typeswere combined, TTC contaminationwas 1.6 to 2.3 timesmore likely
in rural compared to urban water sources depending on the urban definition. Our results suggest that different
targets for urban and ruralwater safety are not justified and that rural dwellers aremore exposed to unsafewater
than urban dwellers. Additionally, urban–rural analyses should assess multiple definitions or indicators of urban
to assess robustness of findings and to characterize a gradient that disaggregates the urban–rural dichotomy.
Reducing inequalities is a priority from a human rights perspective and in water and public health initiatives.
There are periodic calls for differential national and global standards for rural and urban areas, often justified
by the suggestion that, for a given water source type, safety is worse in urban areas. For instance, initially
proposed post-2015 water targets included classifying urban but not rural protected dug wells as unimproved.
The objectives of this study were to: (i) examine the influence of urban extent definition on water safety in
Nigeria, (ii) compare the frequency of thermotolerant coliform (TTC) contamination and prevalence of sanitary
risks between rural and urban water sources of a given type and (iii) investigate differences in exposure to contaminated
drinking-water in rural and urban areas.Weuse spatially referenced data froma Nigerian national randomized
sample survey of five improvedwater source types to assess the extent of any disparities in urban–rural
safety. We combined the survey data on TTC and sanitary risk with map layers depicting urban versus rural areas
according to eight urban definitions. When examining water safety separately for each improved source type,we
found no significant urban–rural differences in TTC contamination and sanitary risk for groundwater sources
(boreholes and protected dug wells) and inconclusive findings for piped water and stored water. However,
when improved and unimproved source typeswere combined, TTC contaminationwas 1.6 to 2.3 timesmore likely
in rural compared to urban water sources depending on the urban definition. Our results suggest that different
targets for urban and ruralwater safety are not justified and that rural dwellers aremore exposed to unsafewater
than urban dwellers. Additionally, urban–rural analyses should assess multiple definitions or indicators of urban
to assess robustness of findings and to characterize a gradient that disaggregates the urban–rural dichotomy.
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