Household water treatment practice and associated factors among rural Kebeles (villages) in west Guji zone, southern Ethiopia: Community based cross-sectional study

Abstract

IntroductionGlobally there is progress in safe water access. However, in sub-Saharan Africa only 57% of the population has an improved water supply, this resulting in water borne diseases. In area where safe water access is limited household water treatment was best alternative. However, the household water treatment practice in west Guji zone community does not studied yet. Thus this study aimed to assess household water treatment practice and associated factors among rural community in west Guji Zone. Methods and materialA community based descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted from June–July 2021. Semi-Structured questionnaire was used for interviewing the respondents. The study participants were selected by simple random sampling method. The raw quantitative data were coded and entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and the data were exported to SPSS version 26 for Bivarate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval was used to measure the strength of association and statistical significance was declared at p-value <0.05. ResultsThe result of the study shows that, only 35.8% of the study participant was practicing household water treatment. The most commonly practiced household water treatment methods were; chlorination (44.9%), boiling (24.5%) and cloth filter (19.5%). Factors significantly associated with household water treatment were educational status (P-0.001, AOR = 2.49, 95% CI = 1.41–5.02), Income (p < 0.001, AOR-4.10, CI - 5.22–10.22), and knowledge of household water treatment methods (P-0.04, AOR 1.56, CI 1.24–3.67). ConclusionFrom the finding it was evident that the household water treatment practice was limited. Besides, the educated people, households with high monthly income and have knowledge about household water treatment were associated with household water treatment.