Maximizing domestic water accessibility: A statistical model

In light of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, a multivariate linear model was built to estimate the percent of each countries’ population having reasonable access to clean drinking water. The statistical program ARC [1] was used to determine which adequately transformed variables were most significant in predicting water accessibility. In order of importance, these variables were: gross national income per capita, population density, domestic water withdrawal per capita, and the corruption perceptions index. Interestingly, the water resource variables used here were statistically orthogonal to the water accessibility model. In other words, the problem of water accessibility does not depend on water supply or its scarcity, at a country-wide level. These findings were also confirmed geographically. This model is a step forward, and invites academics to improve the model and developing countries to improve their reported data.

This model, in its current version, is an indication of what the data suggests at the present time. Rather than water scarcity, the factors that affect water accessibility per capita are GNI, DWW, and PD. While some organizations like FAO and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) are providing important water resource information to the public, there is still much work to be done in Overuse ratio 0.5 0.1 Improved water source Year 2004 100% to 100 to 95 to 80 to 59 (40) (26) (48) (36) (24) Fig. 3. Comparison of overuse ratio and accessible water information in Africa [13].