† excreta are flushed to the street, yard or plot, open sewer, a ditch, a drainage way or other location the strength of wpm is comprehensiveness with respect to the sample of water points audited, which results in the need of roughly covering the overall area of intervention. the drawback of the wpm approach, however, is that the focus is on water points, while sanitation and hygiene data need to be collected at the household. an approach for wash data collection that combines a water points mapping with a household-based survey might overcome previous constraint. the new methodology takes the wpm as a starting point to comprehensively record all improved water points, being the water point basic sampling unit. this information can be then combined with data provided from a household survey to assess sanitation and hygienic habits. in terms of method, the approach adopted includes: (i) identification and audit of all improved water points; (ii) calculation of a sample size of households that is representative at and below the district level; and (iii) random household selection at the water point. applications wpm can be used to support different types of analysis, and specific applications include among others broad strategic planning, priority setting exercises and performance monitoring. potential users of wpm outcomes include organizations that have water poverty alleviation as their mandate, for example, at the international level, un agencies, the world bank, bilateral development agencies and international ngos. crowdsourced remote sensing and pseudo-live water point mapping provided by waterforecast.net planning at local level maps have come out a powerful tool for identifying and targeting the most deprived population, and therefore support poverty reduction initiatives. however, its potential remains underexploited. a recent study developed by wateraid concluded that the use of this tool for better planning at the district level was still low despite the acknowledgment of its potential usefulness. two major challenges in this regard were related to the regular updating of information and to the mechanisms to include wpm evidence in the planning process. this created a vicious circle, since the more outdated wpm data became, the less useful it was for planning purposes. the ingo isf-apd and same district council (tanzania) developed a methodology to update wpm data and use them to help inform planning decisions. first activity was to prepare a district water and sanitation priority document. a set of objective criteria were defined (using wpm information) in order to rank communities based on service level and infrastructure status. criteria used included among others coverage, need for rehabilitation, seasonality of services, quality of water delivered, and poor management. each criterion produced one different ranking, and this enabled an accurate prioritization of future interventions and rehabilitations in the district, a part from defining a wide range of related supporting activities. the priority document was approved and issued in september 2009 by the district authority, and it was also used to set the priorities for all sector-related stakeholders operating within the district. analysis of functionality of water points wpm data can be used to analyze the durability of water points depending on different factors such as time after construction, technology, management framework, or the approach adopted in the implementation. lessons that have been learned from this analysis might help local governments and other agencies to address the sustainability challenge. the water point data exchange, launched in 2015, is a global platform for sharing water point data collected by governments, non-profit organizations, researchers, and others. advocacy maps are also a powerful tool for advocacy, since they provide clear messages and communicate complex information quickly and accurately. in addition, local governments have used mapping evidences to lobby for additional funding, and citizens have used them to pressure their representatives for better services. at the same time, diverse initiatives are underway to display maps via web, as an attempt to foster accountability and disseminate wpm outputs to a broader public. for example, the h2.0 initiative of un habitat and google, the water point mapper developed by wateraid, or the support made by the water and sanitation program to the establishment of watsan portals in many african countries. researchers at odi found that water mapping could improve accountability in service delivery. accountability could be achieved through the creation of community maps and the public availability of mapping knowledge which empower the community. monitoring the sector wpm is an adequate tool to support monitoring and evaluation of the sector. water poverty follows a highly heterogeneous pattern, widely varying between and within different geographic and administrative units; and mapping permits a feasible visualization of such heterogeneity. in addition, maps are well suited to illustrate spatial change over time.