School of Global & Public Health

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Browsing School of Global & Public Health by Author "Jella, Chimwemwe Dickson"

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    A comparative study of sanitation and hygiene of boreholes in open defecation free and open defecation communities in Phalombe district, Malawi
    (Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, 2020-12-01) Jella, Chimwemwe Dickson
    Community-led total sanitation has the potential to improve sanitation and hygiene in different key areas such as environmental sanitation which include borehole sanitation. However, it is not clear if being open defecation free affects borehore sanitation and hygiene. The main objective of the study was to compare the status of sanitation and hygiene of boreholes in open defecation free and open defecation communities in Phalombe District. Thus, this study wanted to establish if sanitation and hygiene of boreholes was dependent on open defecation free status of an area. This was a comparative descriptive cross-sectional study. We used checklist to observe borehole surrounding, questionnaire to collect additional information of the borehole and we also collected a 100ml water sample for faecal coliform analysis. The study was conducted in two Traditional Authorities in Phalombe which were purposefully identified: Jenala (open defecation free) and Nkhulambe (open defecation). We randomly sampled 27 boreholes in Traditional Authority Jenala and 27 in Traditional Authority Nkhulambe. Our total sample size was fifty-four (54) boreholes. We used Fisher’s exact test to determine the difference of sanitation and hygiene of boreholes between these areas. Cleanliness of borehole surrounding, risk to borehole groundwater bacteriological contamination, functionality status of water point committees and coverage of contaminated boreholes were not different in the two Traditional Authorities with p-values of 0.116, 0.136, 0.382 and 0.078 respectively. Despite the many benefits such as increased coverage of pit latrines realized through implementation of Community Led Total Sanitation approach, it has not improved sanitation and hygiene parameters of borehole facilities in Phalombe district.