A study on water, sanitation and hygiene practices among the urban slum dwellers of Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Background: Water, sanitation and hygiene are global concerns for both WHO and UNICEF. The sustainable development goal had targeted improved water sources, but the target of improved sanitation facilities was missed by almost 700 million people worldwide. The less developed and developing nations (like India) did not meet both the targets.Methods: A community-based cross sectional study was conducted in the urban slums of Vellore using the systematic random sampling method. Data was analyzed using frequency and WASH scoring. Further bi-variate and multivariate analyses was done using chi-square test and logistic regression. A total number of 140 households were surveyed using a semi-structured, pilot-tested questionnaire.Results: It was found that 65% of the study population (n=140) had poor wash score (<8). Among the 12 exposure variables analyzed, it was found that three variables had significant association with a poor WASH score (<8), which were: having more than 4 members in a household; living in a kutcha house, and consumption of municipal water.Conclusions: The study showed that the majority of the people dwelling in urban slums in Vellore do not have sufficient knowledge regarding good hygiene practices. A good knowledge regarding proper hygiene practices and the availability of proper facilities is crucial in improving sanitary conditions in the community.

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) practices among residents of different slum settlements in a ward of Kolkata: A mixed-methods study

“…It was greater than the findings by Chu et al in a Tamil Nadu study, where 92.4% of the study population used municipal water supply. [ 7 ] Kanungo et al .,[ 13 ] in their prospective study on WASH in slums of Kolkata, mentioned that over 90% of the households had access to piped water supply. However, this contrasted with Berhampur, Odisha, and Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, where 62.3% and 42% of the study participants reported public hand pumps as their main water source as reported by Tripathy et al [ 14 ] and Agarwal et al, [ 15 ] respectively.…”

“…Quantitative strand: Taking the proportion (p) of poor WASH scores from a study by Chu et al [ 7 ] in slums in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, as 65%, q = 1-p and relative error L as 10% sample size was calculated using Cochran's formula:…”

Tracking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Practices: Waste Management and Environmental Cleaning in the Slums of North India

“…The majority of them were either uneducated or had attended up to middle school (29% each). More than half of the study population was engaged in some form of unskilled work (54%) and lived in a pucca dwellings (52%) [ 19 ]. These findings were similar to those of the present study.…”

“…Three out of four slums used drains as waste disposal areas, and flood areas were present in all four slums. Out of the total, 62.3% of respondents depended on public taps as the major source of drinking water, 31.5% purified water before drinking, 68.5% allowed water to stand for a day before use, 86.5% practiced hand washing before meals, 33.2% practiced open defecation, 7% and 74% used soap and water for hand washing before meals and after defecation, respectively, 68.3% threw liquid wastes haphazardly, and 59.8% threw solid wastes haphazardly into drains [ 19 ].…”