Community Water Improvement, Household Water Insecurity, and Women's Psychological Distress: An Intervention and Control Study in Ethiopia.

Journal: PloS one

Volume: 11

Issue: 4

Year of Publication: 2017

Affiliated Institutions:  Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, United Kingdom. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia. Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States of America. Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States of America. Department of Environmental Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States of America.

Abstract summary 

Over 650 million people worldwide lack access to safe water supplies, and even among those who have gained access to 'improved' sources, water may be seasonally unreliable, far from homes, expensive, and provide insufficient quantity. Measurement of water access at the level of communities and households remains crude, and better measures of household water insecurity are urgently needed to inform needs assessments and monitoring and evaluation. We set out to assess the validity of a quantitative scale of household water insecurity, and to investigate (1) whether improvements to community water supply reduce water insecurity, (2) whether water interventions affect women's psychological distress, and (3) the impacts of water insecurity on psychological distress, independent of socio-economic status, food security, and harvest quality.Measures were taken before and one to six months after a community water supply improvement in three villages in rural northern Ethiopia. Villages similar in size and access to water sources and other amenities did not receive interventions, and served as controls. Household water insecurity was assessed using a 21-item scale based on prior qualitative work in Ethiopia. Women's psychological distress was assessed using the WHO Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Respondents were either female heads of household or wives of the heads of household (n = 247 at baseline, n = 223 at endline); 123 households provided data at both rounds. The intervention was associated with a decline of approximately 2 points on the water insecurity scale between baseline and endline compared to the control (beta -1.99; 95% CI's -3.15, -0.84). We did not find evidence of impact of the intervention on women's psychological distress. Water insecurity was, however, predictive of psychological distress (p <0.01), independent of household food security and the quality of the previous year's harvest.These results contribute to the construct validity of our water insecurity scale, and establish our approach to measuring water insecurity as a plausible means of evaluating water interventions. Improvements to community water supplies were effective in reducing household water insecurity, but not psychological distress, in this population. Water insecurity was an important predictor of psychological distress. This study contributes to an emerging literature on quantitative assessment of household water insecurity, and draws attention to the potential impact of improved access to water on women's mental well-being.

Authors & Co-authors:  Stevenson E G J EG Ambelu A A Caruso B A BA Tesfaye Y Y Freeman M C MC

Study Outcome 

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Statistics
Citations :  Mekonnen M. M., & Hoekstra A. Y. (2016). Four billion people facing severe water scarcity. Science Advances, 2(2), e1500323 10.1126/sciadv.1500323
Authors :  5
Identifiers
Doi : e0153432
SSN : 1932-6203
Study Population
Female
Mesh Terms
Ethiopia
Other Terms
Study Design
Case Control Trial,Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative,Qualitative
Country of Study
Ethiopia
Publication Country
United States