Promotion of Solar Water Disinfection: Comparing the Effectiveness of Different Strategies in a Longitudinal Field Study in Bolivia

Abstract

Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is a simple method designed to treat microbiologically contaminated drinking water at the household level. This study focused on the effective promotion of the SODIS method using various strategies. In a longitudinal field study, we compared 2 interpersonal strategies (promoters and opinion leaders) and a centralized strategy (health fair) with a control group. Indicators of effectiveness were SODIS knowledge, SODIS adoption rate, and potential reach. The results suggest that use of promoters is the most successful strategy in terms of reaching people and changing their behavior toward SODIS use. The opinion leaders-although less effective-show some potential to stimulate communication among people about SODIS. Only the health fair did not have a big impact on behavior. Further discussion includes the costs of the various promotional activities, limitations, and recommendations for future projects.

Solar water disinfection (SODIS): A review from bench-top to roof-top

“…Finally, late adoption was caused by perceiving that a majority had already adopted SODIS. Tamas et al [146] investigated several dissemination strategies and found that interpersonal strategies were more effective than centralized strategies. Centralized strategies such as health fairs did not reach as many people and did not greatly change behaviour, while interpersonal strategies (promoters, opinion leaders) were successful in both of these respects.…”

“…Consumed percentages of the total water consumption of untreated, boiled and SODIS water of the control, persuasion and prompt intervention groups over time. Co = control, Pe = persuasion intervention, PF&SF = persuasion and prompt intervention [146,152]. strategy (music, animator, food for staff, advertising, prizes for competitions) while the opinion leaders proved very inexpensive and the 2 weeks of employment of the promoters cost about half that of the health fair.…”

Why Do People Stop Treating Contaminated Drinking Water With Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS)?

“…In brief, in one community SODIS was introduced during a health fair, in another community trained promoters conducted household visits, and in a third community an opinion leader approach was tested. Effects of these different activities are not studied in this paper; a detailed description can be found in Tamas et al (2009). The following analyses include all households, independently of which promotional campaign they received.…”

“…SODIS has been disseminated by various NGOs in many developing countries for more than 10 years (www.sodis .ch). Some research has been conducted on predictors of SODIS behavior (Altherr, Mosler, Tobias, & Butera, 2008;Heri & Mosler, 2008;Moser & Mosler, 2008), but no study so far has investigated the often-occurring relapse from using SODIS to resuming consumption of untreated water (Tamas, Tobias, & Mosler, 2009). The present paper intends to close this gap and to contribute to a general understanding of why preventive health behaviors are often discontinued (Fuchs, 1997;Fuchs, Seelig, & Kilian, 2005;Pahmeier, 1994).…”

Identifying behavioural determinants for interventions to increase handwashing practices among primary school children in rural Burundi and urban Zimbabwe

“…The corresponding behaviour change techniques are then selected to develop appropriate practical strategies for intervention programmes [32–34]. Several studies have successfully applied the RANAS approach for different health-related behaviours, including handwashing [35], in the water and sanitation sector in developing countries and have shown the added value of implementing data- and theory-based interventions compared to information interventions alone [36–38]. …”