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Globally, about 435 million people depend on unimproved drinking water sources, and 144 million people still rely on surface water. Specifically, a significant part of the population in Ethiopia depends on unimproved water sources. Studies have examined household water treatment practices in the country, but there is a limited research regarding the population that depends on unimproved water sources. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate household water treatment practices and related factors for the households that depend on unimproved water sources in the Ameya district of the Oromia Regional State in Southwest Ethiopia. A community-based, cross-sectional study was used to assess the water treatment practices and related factors for the households that use an unimproved water source in the Ameya district of the Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia. The study used a multistage sampling technique and included a total of 413 households. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 26 statistical package. A multivariable logistic regression was applied to identify the factors related to household water treatment practices at a 95% confidence interval (CI). Variables with a p-value of less than 0.05 in.the multivariable regression were considered to be significantly related to the water treatment practice. The current study showed that 125 (30.3%) of the households that used unimproved water sources practiced household water treatment at the household level. These water treatment methods include boiling (60.8%) the water or using cloth filters (23.2%) or chlorine-based products (13.6%). When considering the training and formal education of the respondents, the water treatment practices were significantly related to the respondents’ water treatment training (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=2.99; 95% CI 1.97–4.94) and educational status, specifically secondary education (AOR=1.61; 95% CI 1.02–2.93). Less than one-third of the households that depend on unimproved water sources treated their water prior to drinking. Providing training to teach individuals how to treat household water is essential to improving water treatment practices.

Background: The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) service ladders are worldwide indicators for monitoring drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene elements of the sustainable development goal targets. However, evidence on how the prevalence of childhood diarrhea looks across the service ladders is limited. This study aimed to assess the relationship between WASH service ladders and the prevalence of childhood diarrhea in Haramaya Demographic and Health Surveillance site, Eastern Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study using a structured questionnaire, observational checklist, and water quality analysis was conducted on 535 households with children under 5 years of age. Poisson regression with a robust error variance estimator was used to investigate the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Results: The prevalence of diarrhea among under-five children in the surveillance site was 24.8% (95% CI: 22.3-27.6). The regression model revealed that water and sanitation service ladders were associated with childhood diarrhea. Childhood diarrhea was found to be 73% (APR = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.12-0.57) less common in families with a basic water service ladder than in households with a surface water service ladder. In addition, children in households with basic sanitation services had 83% (APR = 0.17; 95% CI: 0.05-0.56) lower diarrhea prevalence than children in households where open defecation was practiced. Conclusion: The present study found that childhood diarrhea differed considerably among WASH service levels and continues to be a serious health problem at the surveillance site. This study also shows that much work is needed to improve WASH services.

BackgroundDiarrhea remains one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity, despite the global progression of eradicating the burden of diarrhea-related morbidity and mortality in the past two decades. In Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, there is inadequate supply and sanitation of safe water. However, there is a lack of literature that estimates the impact of drinking water and sanitation service on childhood diarrhea in Kersa Demographic and Health Surveillance. Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the prevalence and effect of water supply and environmental sanitation on diarrhea among under-five children from 2017 to 2021 in Kersa Demographic and Health Surveillance, Eastern Ethiopia.MethodA prospective cohort study design was implemented among 6,261 children from the Kersa Health Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS), Eastern Ethiopia, from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2021. STATA statistical software was used to extract data from the datasets. The binary logistic regression was used to identify the impact of water supply and environmental sanitation on diarrhea by controlling important confounders. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval measures this association.ResultThe current study showed that among 6,261 under-five children, 41.75% of them had developed active diarrhea during the follow-up time. The final model depicted that having media exposure of 22% [AOR - 0.78 CI: (0.61, 0.98)], a protected tube well source of drinking water of 50% [AOR - 1.50, CI: (1.32, 1.71)], unprotected tube well source of drinking water of 66% [AOR - 1.66 CI: (1.27, 2.18)], having toilet facility of 13% [AOR - 0.87 CI: (0.78, 0.97)], and accessibility of source of water [AOR - 1.17 CI: (1.05, 1.30)] showed a significant association with diarrhea among under-five children.ConclusionThe prevalence of diarrhea is found to be high in the Kersa District. The main predictors of diarrhea under five were a lack of latrines, an unimproved source of drinking water, and a distance from access to drinking water. The study setting should focus on increasing the adequacy of safe drinking water and sanitation.

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