Why record a facility as a site instead of just another survey response?

Because a site is a permanent record of a real place, and survey responses attach to it. That is what lets you ask how one water point has changed over five years, rather than only how a district looked on the day you surveyed it.

Video: The Power of Sites in mWater on YouTube

Why this matters

This is the single design decision that separates a monitoring system from a pile of surveys. Responses that stand alone can be counted but not followed, so every round of data collection starts over and nothing can be held accountable for a facility over time. Sites also make data shareable: because the facility exists as its own record, a second organisation can add its own monitoring to the same place instead of creating a duplicate.

How to do it

  1. Create the site once, with its location and identifying details, before you start monitoring it.
  2. Add a site question to your survey so each response is linked to the facility it describes.
  3. Use the site's history view to see every survey ever submitted about that facility.
  4. Set privacy per site so sensitive locations stay restricted while the rest can be shared.
  5. Report on change over time by grouping responses by site rather than by survey round.

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