HEALTH IMPACT CAUSED BY POOR WATER AND SANITATION IN DISTRICT ABBOTTABAD

Authors

  • Sadia Jabeen
  • Qaisar Mahmood
  • Sumbal Tariq
  • Bahadar Nawab
  • Noor Elahi

Abstract

Background: Large proportions of people still do not have excess to safe drinking water and propersanitation. Methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to assess the health impacts.Random households were selected. Information was collected from questionnaire through interviewschedule method, group discussion and observation checklist. Results: People rated water and sanitationcondition in urban as: 10% very good, 27% good, 20% bad, 43% very bad, and none of them said wedon’t know. While in rural areas they rated 10% very good, 36% good, 44% bad, 6% very bad, and 4%of them said we don’t know. Water sources in selected urban and rural areas were different, 37% inurban and 68% in rural area depended on bore wells as water source, 22% depended on hand pumps. Inurban areas, the disease ratio was typhoid 20%, hepatitis 13%, diarrhoea 27%, skin infection 23%,stomach problems 53% and allergies 33%. In rural areas, after stomach problems, diarrhoea, hepatitisand typhoid ratio was very high as compared to urban area. In rural community, 70% were unaware ofpoor water and sanitation consequences on health. Conclusion: The water and sanitation condition inurban as well as in rural community is poor but in rural community it is even worse. The drinking waterwas contaminated with E. coli, Enterobacter, Salmonella and Clostridium. This observation wascorrelated with prevalence of many water born diseases especially in rural communities of Abbottabad.Keywords: Safe drinking water, health impacts, environmental awareness, water borne diseases, waterand sanitation.

References

Murray C, Lopez A. Global mortality, disability, and the

Contribution of risk factors: Global burden of disease study.

Lancet 1997;349:1436–42.

Hutton G, Haller L, Bartram J. Economic and health effects of

increasing coverage of low cost household drinking-water supply

and sanitation interventions to countries off-track to meet MDG

target 10. Public Health and the Environment. World Health

Organization Geneva. 2007.

World Bank 2002b Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at a Glance.

Health, Nutrition and Population Sector Fact Sheet. The World

Bank, Washington, DC.

Ustun AP, Bos R, Gore F, Bartram J. Safer water, better health

cost benefits and sustainability of interventions to protect and

promote health. World Health Organization. 2008.

Bennet EB. Public-private Cooperation in the Delivery of Urban

Infrastructure Services (Water and Waste), Yale-United Nations

Development Program-Public Private Partnerships (UNDP-PPP).

UNICEF & WHO 2004 Meeting the MDG Drinking Water and

Sanitation Target: A Mid-Term Assessment of Progress.

UNICEF/WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.

WHO & UNICEF 2000 Global Water Supply and Sanitation

Assessment 2000 Report. World Health Organization (WHO)

and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New York.

Pokhrel D, Viraraghavan T. Diarrhoeal diseases in Nepal vis-à-

vis water supply and sanitation status. J Water Health

;2(2):71–81.

Khan FJ, Javed Y. Delivering Access to Safe Drinking Water and

Adequate Sanitation in Pakistan Working Paper Series 2007:30.

Retrieved 2009, from http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/ Working

Paper/WorkingPaper-30.pdf

Government of Pakistan. Ten years perspective development

plan (2001–2011), planning division, government of Pakistan.

World Bank. Report of second structural adjustment credit

program. International development association program and

Government of North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. 2002

Ford TE. Microbiological safety of drinking water: United States

and global perspectives, Environmental Health Perspectives

;107(S1):191–206.

Karn SK, Harada H. Field survey on water supply, sanitation and

associated health impacts in urban poor communities –a case

from Mumbai City, India. Wat Sci Technol 2002;46(11–

:269–75.

Montgomery MA, Elimelech M. Water and sanitation in

developing countries: including health in the equation. Environ

Sci Technol. 2007 1;41(1):17–24.

World Bank. Water Resources Management. A World Bank

Policy Paper. Washington, DC: The World Bank;1993

Downloads

Published

2011-03-01

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>