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We use data collected as part of a baseline survey in 2012 and a survey 5 months post-intervention in 2014 to assess the short-term outcomes of a water supply intervention in Ribáuè, Mozambique. This intervention included the rehabilitation and expansion of a piped water system, revitalization of water committees, and creation of and capacity building for small-scale private water enterprises. Quantitative results suggest that the intervention led to an immediate significant increase in the use of piped water supply at the expense of unprotected wells and other non-revenue generating forms of unimproved water supply with more than a 2.5-fold increase in the usage of yard taps and water kiosks/standpipes and a two-fold decrease in the use of unprotected wells. Family water consumption also increased by approximately 40 L/d, and the point-of-use treatment of water nearly tripled. Economic opportunities were generated for business and small enterprise owners due to the new water supply infrastructure, and piped water infrastructure had additional positive effects for both public and private sanitation facilities. This article has been made Open Access thanks to the generous support of a global network of libraries as part of the Knowledge Unlatched Select initiative.

Land cover within eight drinking water catchments in Sarawak was classified into six categories using satellite imagery and GIS. The categories represented varying levels of vegetation modification from largely undisturbed or mature secondary vegetation (Category 1) through to bare, non-vegetated areas (Category 6). Rivers less than ∼10 m in width were usually ‘invisible’ on satellite images because of dense canopy cover. More than 70% of headwaters in all catchments, except one (Buri Bakong), were not visible, indicating the presence of dense riparian vegetation. For the river sections that were visible on satellite images, 5%–22% of the riparian buffer was highly degraded (completely lacking vegetation). The highest degree of riparian modification occurred in the lowlands, the midland catchment of Tingkas and the highland catchment of Trusan. Although Sarawak government policy requires buffer widths of 5–50 m of natural vegetation to be retained along all streams and rivers in drinking water supply catchments these guidelines were not met at nine of the eleven field sites surveyed. These results suggest that compliance with buffer guidelines is important to water quality in rivers, particularly in logging areas, oil palm plantations and near settlements.