Socio-Demographic And Water Handling Practices Affecting Quality Of Household Drinking Water In Kisii Town, Kisii County, Kenya
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Date
2022
Authors
Akunga, D.N.
Ondieki, J.K.
Warutere, P.N.
Kenyanya, Omanga
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier ltd
Abstract
Household drinking water quality is dependent on a number of determinants which could be arising at the source,
during transportation or due to storage and handling practices. The challenge of unsafe water is even big in urban
settings that are often characterized by exponential population growth, increased urbanization, industrialization
and poor sanitary facilities. Contaminated water is a leading cause of water borne diseases which are a major
public health and policy makers concern. In fact, Water borne diseases are third cause of mortality in Kenya
whereas they are ranked second in Kisii. The study was designed to investigate the factors affecting household
drinking water quality in Kisii Town that has four main zones which include: Mwembe, Jogoo, Nyanchwa and
CBD. Demographics, level of awareness in terms of water quality as well as hygiene and sanitation practices of the
study population were studied using questionnaires. The questionnaires were filled by interviewing household
heads from 422 sampled households. Qualitative data was also obtained by use of Focused group discussions
(FGDs). Perspectives of key people such as public health officers were acquired through Key informant interviews
(KIIs). The study found a significant relationship between household size and water quality in terms of presence of
total coliforms. The following hygiene and sanitation factors were found to be having significant relationship with
presence of E. coli in household drinking water; source of water (p ¼ 0.002), transportation container (p ¼ 0.029),
covering during transportation (p ¼ 0.012), storage container (p < 0.001), method of drawing from storage
container (p < 0.001), feces disposal (p ¼ 0.001) and garbage disposal method (p ¼ 0.04). The conclusion of this
study is that good hygiene and sanitation practices are important in ensuring total safety of drinking water at the
point of use. There is therefore need for more capacity building in this region to ensure that people do not
consume contaminated water which is a major contributing factor to water-borne diseases.
Description
Research article
Keywords
Water quality, Determinants, Socio-demographic, Hygiene, sanitation
Citation
Ondieki, J. K., Akunga, D. N., Warutere, P. N., & Kenyanya, O. (2022). Socio-demographic and water handling practices affecting quality of household drinking water in Kisii Town, Kisii County, Kenya. Heliyon, 8(5), e09419.