Drinking Water Practices, Quality and GIT Disturbances at Household Level in Rural Setting of Wardha District, Maharashtra, India

Introduction: Limited availability of safe drinking water and poor sanitation can lead to water borne diseases. In India, alone waterborne diseases are projected to have an economic burden of approximately USD 600 million a year. Rural population face water, sanitation, and hygiene-related health issues. In India, many programs are running since decades, but there is need to understand current scenario of drinking water practices in the community.

Objectives: To assess the drinking water practices, purification methods, drinking water quality at household level and Gastrointestinal GIT disturbances among the visited household.

Methods: This community based cross-sectional study was conducted during July-December 2019 in purposively selected three villages of field practice area JNMC, Wardha. Sample size is calculated to be 96 household and rounded up to 100 for each village (total 300 household). Households of Village A, B, and C are 392, 388 and 381 respectively. 100 household were selected by systematic random sampling method. Information was collected by interviewing adult at home after verbal consent by using Pre-structured, pre-tested questionnaire. Randomly ten water samples from each village tested for quality.

Results: Most of the household i.e. 80% have water source in their premises into dwelling (47%) or own yard (32%). Overall 61% of the household had adopted purification method. Village-wise distribution for adoption of purification methods, it is found significantly highest in village C and lowest in A (X2 -8.54, p=0.013). On an average 25% of the household reported that family members were suffered from gastrointestinal disturbances. Village-wise distribution for GIT disturbances cases, it is found significantly highest in village A and lowest in C (X2-19.25, p=0.0001). Most common purification method is filtration by using cloth or net by 41%. Total 76.67% water samples were contaminated.

Conclusion: Village which shows higher percentage of HH adopted purification method suffered less from GIT disturbances. Most of water samples were unsafe for drinking purpose. Hence community can be aware through an integrated approach such as Village, health sanitation and nutrition committee can be strengthened.