Talk:Humanitarian OSM Tags/WASH

Good morning, I would like participate to this discussion because the focus is close to the project H2OpenMap.org [1]. In few words it's about direct survey and mapping of clean water resource in rural west Burkina Faso. The goal is to provide a map useful to better select hot spot for drilling water wells. After a pretty long research of documentations and also due to my own previous experience in the territory I've mapped, I realized a paper form field [2] based on HOT HDM [3] preset with some upgrade.

Basically I've added:

- 5 tags to better describe the water well

- 1 tag used also for amenity=drinking_water

- 1 tag to identify entry in custom map database

man_made=water_well (HOT/HDM tags)

   name=…
   pump=powered,manual,no
   operator=…
   operator:type=public,private,government,ngo,community
   condition=good,fair,deficient
   disused=yes/[no]
   abandoned=yes/[no]
   access=yes,private,multifamily
   drinking_water=yes,no
   source=…
   note=…

custom tags

   water_well:size=small,large
   water_well:top=open,close,can be opened
   pump:manual=lever,pedal,flywheel,…
   dry=yes/[no]
   survey:date=…

- water_well:size=small,large is used to make a preliminary identification due to a FAO documentation[4]. Drilled water wells have relevant difference from dug water well, especially in water quality and construction technology. For more info please refer to the linked FAO Documentation.

- water_well:top=open,close,can be opened is immediately connected to de previous tag (water_well:size=small,large) because most of the water well quality depend if contaminator factors can or cannot enter through the top (ground, animals, etc). Both those two tags by description of the water well appearance also talk about water quality and this is relevant in organizing a drilling campaign. Just for exemple in the village of Rakounga (Burkina Faso) use search string in following link:[5], I've find 15 water wells, 9 was in deficient condition, disused, abandoned, 5 provide water, just 2 of them provide clean water. So, 15 water resource looks pretty good but a better analysis reveal that just 2 water well can be considered drinkable.

- pump:manual=lever,pedal,flywheel,… is basically relate to the direct experience. During 7 years activity in Burkina Faso I've find 3 type of pump:

- lever (mostly called "India") pump[6]

- pedal pump[7]

- flywheel pump[8]

Actually pump:manual is an open tag, so it is possible to add other types of manual pump.

- dry=yes/[no]. I've added this tag to describe water well that do not provide whater and looks dry. Drinking_water=no is not a good idea to describe absence of water because it's easy to mistake with poor quality of water. As same time Deficient condition, disused and abandoned doesn't imply necessary lak of water. Adding dry tag looks a good solution.

- survey:date=…. I've decided to add this tag and to do not use the deprecated by HOT/HDM source:date because is very important to give a temporal tag of the survey. Every water wells change.

useful tag used in amenity=drinking_water

   fee=yes/[no]

I've added this tag that actually already exist in amenity=drinking_water just because often I've found that people have to pay to take water

ID tag to the custom map database

   ref:h2openmap=…

This tag is used to give an independent ID to the entry and is used to connect OSM database to H2OpenMap.org/map database to show additional info as photo in pop-up.[9].

H2OpenMap.org

As mentioned before this project start from the need to have good quality info about drinking water resource distribution in country side of Burkina Faso. The direct survey and the quality of the data are relevant to know the territory and plan an efficient drilling campaign. The approach was mostly "journalistic", as Journalism is made by feet. That means walk and ask! Quality data doesn't come from desk job but by hard and exciting job. As for Journalist, is very important to stay stuck to the facts and do not imply conclusion by your own hypothesis and assumptions. That's the most difficult work in the survey! For example, finding as happened, a locked pump don't implied that access=private or drinking_water=yes, but just asking to people living around that pump I could have some evidence or just info useful to know if the access was permissive or private and if the water was drinkable or not.

With this project I'm trying also to made a good standard following HOT prescriptions, with the hope to made an useful map for everyone.

H2OpenMap.org is an open project, everyone can participate, clone it, improve it, thanks for contributing! Created by Francesco, Rasmata onus - H2OpenMap