Household Water Treatment Practice and Associated Factors in Rural Households of Sodo Zuria District, Southern Ethiopia: Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: In Ethiopia, access to safe drinking water is very low, and even safe water at the point of distribution is subjected to frequent and substantial contamination during collection, transport, and storage. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of household water treatment practices and associated factors in rural households of the Sodo Zuria district, southern Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 836 households using a multistage sampling technique. A structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used. Binary and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used. Results: The household water treatment practice was 44.1%. Households having a higher estimated monthly income, AOR = 1.5 (1.23, 3.47), older age greater than 45 years, AOR = 1.69 (1.08, 2.64), fetching water twice a day, AOR = 2.8 (1.21, 9.17), weekly washing of the water storage container, AOR = 0.3 (0.11, 0.83), and using the dipping technique to draw water from the collection jar, AOR = 1.67 (1.14, 2.42) were significant factors in the practice of household water treatment in the study. Conclusions: The household water treatment practice was low. Higher estimated monthly income, older household heads, fetching water twice per day, washing the water storage container weekly, and dipping techniques to draw water from water storage containers were significant factors of household water treatment practices. Thus, proper hygiene of water storage, and engaging the community in income-generating activities were recommended.

Household water treatment practice and associated factors in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The majority of the included studies were conducted using interviewers to administer questionnaires. Seven studies from the Amhara region [ 19 , 20 , 23 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 38 ]; four studies from the SNNP region [ 28 – 30 , 32 ]; one study from the Oromia region [ 21 ]; one study from the Benishangul-Gumuz region [ 37 ]; one study from both the Oromia and Harari regions [ 35 ]; and two studies from the all-region [ 22 , 31 ] were used to obtain the pooled HWT practices and associated factors ( Table 1 ) .…”

“…This finding is supported by a study conducted in Nigeria [ 40 ]. The possible plausibility could be that those who were fetching water more frequently had a higher likelihood to store their water, allowing them to treat their water by storing it through sedimentation [ 32 ]. The finding might imply that access to water and storage containers was crucial for households to implement the ability to practice HWT [ 42 ].…”

Assessment of house hold water treatment practice in Endamehoni district, northern, Ethiopia: 2020: A community based cross-sectional study

“…Water supply and sanitation situation in almost all sub-saran African countries including Ethiopia is very poor, as most of the population does not have access to safe and adequate water supply and sanitation facilities(6-8). In Ethiopia, access to safe drinking water is very low, and even safe water at the point of distribution is subjected to frequent and substantial contamination during collection, transport, and storage (3). The current national health policy of Ethiopia (health transformation plan indicates that it is planned to achieve 35% coverage in the HH use of water treatment technologies in the package health extension manual but still there is a gap in practice at the community level (7,9).…”

Development of a Point-of-Use Drinking Water Purifier Using Aluminum Oxide-Based Flocculent-Disinfectant Composite

“…Duke et al [2] also pointed out that even people with "improved" water sources, such as household connections, public standpipes, and boreholes, are still at risk of consuming microbiologically and chemically contaminated water. In Africa, the spread of deadly waterborne diseases such as dental and skeletal fluorosis, diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, and cholera are linked to a lack of access to clean water and poor sanitation [3]. Naik [4] pointed out that less than 50% of the rural communities in Africa have access to both safe water and sanitation.…”

“…The most prevalent household water treatment processes include chlorination, filtration, solar disinfection, boiling, coagulation, and flocculation [3]. These are effective at reducing microbial contamination.…”