Copyright: Volume 3 • Issue 1 • 116 www.aperito.org




Aperito Journal Bacteriology, Virology
and Parasitology
Received: Apr 21, 2017
Accepted: May 09, 2017
Published: May 12, 2017



Assessment of Water handling and Sanitation practices among Rural
communities of Farta Woreda, Northwest Ethiopia
Genet Gedamu* and Desta Haftu
Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
Abstract
Worldwide, 663 million people do not have access to
improved drinking water supplies and 2.5 billion people lack
access to improved sanitation including one billion who practice
open defecation. Eighty-eight percent of deaths from diarrheal
diseases are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation,
and insufficient hygiene practices.
Objective: To assess water handling and sanitation practice
among rural communities of Farta woreda,North west Ethiopia.
Methods: A community based cross-sectional study design was
conducted in Farta Woreda from March 5 to 20, 2015. A total of
834 households were proportionally allocated to 10 kebeles of the
Woreda and selected by systematic random sampling
Technique.Data was collected using a pretested structured
questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was performed to obtain the
frequency distribution of the variables.
Results: The majority of respondents water source were
unprotected spring 313 (37.5%) followed by protected spring
206(24.7%). In addition to this, most households 382 (92.5%) had
covered their stored water. Most of the respondents practiced
pouring method to withdraw water from the stored container.
Majority 738 (88.5%) of households had access to water within a
time of 30 minutes or less. House hold water treatment was not
common in the study area, only 23 (2.8%) households practiced.
About four hundred seventy eight (57.3%) households had latrine
facility, of which 263 (55%) was open pit latrine. In addition of
those households having latrine only 102(21.3%) of households
had hand washing facility.
Conclusions: This study revealed that most of the respondents
had poor water handling and sanitation practice. Thus, this study
underscores that there should be great attention.


Keywords: Water Handling; Sanitation; Ethiopia; Rural
Community

*Corresponding Author: Genet Gedmau, Department of Public
Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Arba Minch
University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia; P.O.Box: 021 E-mail:
geni_31280@yahoo.com
Introduction
Access to safe water alone does not reduce diarrheal
diseases significantly. Even if the source is safe, water become
faecally contaminated during collection, transportation, storage
and drawing in the home. Water and sanitation are among the
most important determinants of public health and an adequate
supply of clean water is one of the most basic human needs and
one that must be met [7].
Sanitation practices have a major effect on community
and household water issues. In most rural communities, the use of
on-site sanitation is a common tradition, which is not hygienic for
health. As a result of this, there is a growing concern that the wide
spread use of on-site sanitation systems will cause sub-surface
migration of contaminants, ultimately resulting in disease
transmission and environmental degradation. Surface waters such
as rivers and ponds undergo such degradation as they are subject
to biological and chemical contamination [9].
About 2.4 billion people lack access to improved
sanitation including one billion who practice open defecation.
Moreover, nearly 1 in 4 people in developing countries were
practicing open defecation [15]. Approximately eighty-eight per
cent of cases of diarrhea worldwide are attributable to unsafe
water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene. The
proportion of population in rural areas with access to safe
http://dx.doi.org/10.14437/2378-7864-3-116 Genet Gedamu, Aperito J Bacteriol Virol Parasitol 2017, 3:1 Research
Copyright: © 2017 AJBVP. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, Version 3.0, which permits unrestricted
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