KAP on water, health and environmental hygiene
Background
Vietnam has been gained substantial achievements in economy, education, health care and population development after years of reform (GSO 2017) . However, in Vietnam, as in other countries, the development also goes along with environmental challenges at some extent. It might include air pollution, water pollution, soil exploitation, which may lead to increase the burden on health.
Vietnam has a dense network of more than two thousand rivers, complex system of ponds, lakes and a rich source of ground and surface water had bring people with much convenient in life and opportunity for economic development, especially in industrial area. (Vo 2007) .
There is a growing concern related to water health in Vietnam, especially in recent years. Despite the effort of the government and local authorities in preservation the water source, the level of water pollution is growing at alarming rate as the resulted of industrialization and urbanization Even though there is unfinished effort to carry out projects on water issues, the sustainability of these projects and the engagement of local organizations is unstable.
A mount of evidence has proved that water, sanitation and hygiene are the root of many diseases and health problems. For examples, heavy metal and toxin from industrial wastewater may attribute to reproductive health problems, cognitive problems, birth defect and cancer. Some microorganisms transmitted through water are the cause of some infectious diseases such as diarrhea and cholera (Bartram and Cairncross 2010).
Therefore, it is crucial to implement activities that can improve the connection of local organizations and build their capacities in using available local resources for more sustainable and efficient work to address environmental problems in Vietnam. With support from USAID, PHAD is going to implement the project called Local Works for Environmental Health in Thanh Hoa and Ha Nam provinces. The program aims to build the stronger and broader network with more effective co-operation and engagement of local authorities in dealing with water health issues. This survey is a part of the project, which aims to provide deeper understanding of the scenario of the local sites before intervention. In particular, it assesses the current knowledge, attitude and practice of local people on water health and water-related diseases.
Objective
The objectives of this study are:
- To investigate the rate of diarrhea among children under 5;
- To assess knowledge on clean water, health and environmental hygiene;
- To assess awareness on clean water, health and environmental hygiene;
- To assess practice on clean water, health and environmental hygiene
Methodology
Subject and sample size
There was 1040 people be interviewed. The sample was recruited from the household lists in intervention site. In each household, the head, aged from 18 to 60 and know clearly household information, was selected for face-to-face interview
Sites and time
Study was carried out in Thanh Hoa and Ha Nam province in 2018
Key findings
The result shows that KAP on clean water is not high, only 2.3% people know that clean water need to meet MOH and government agencies standards. The proportion of people know effectiveness of hand washing is not high, especially only small fraction know comprehensive steps of hand washing with soap, only 2.5%... Even this is cross-sectional study and implemented in small sites so not be representative to scale up. However, the study is also contributed to assess the need of local people to implement proper intervention.
Funding
The study is funded by USAID through grant for Institution of Population, Health and Development (PHAD)