Your search found 3 records
1 Stevenson, E. G. J.; Ambelu, A.; Caruso, B. A.; Tesfaye, Y.; Freeman, M. C. 2016. Community water improvement, household water insecurity, and women’s psychological distress: an intervention and control study in Ethiopia. PLoS ONE, 11(4):1-13. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153432]
Water supply ; Community development ; Water availability ; Households ; Water insecurity ; Gender ; Womans status ; Psychological factors ; Stress ; Socioeconomic environment ; Food insecurity ; Harvesting ; Villages / Ethiopia / Amhara Region / South Wello / South Gondar
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048338)
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153432&type=printable
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048338.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048338.pdf
(0.24 MB) (244 KB)
Background
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.
Methods and Findings
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.
Conclusion
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.
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.
Methods and Findings
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.
Conclusion
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.
2 Caruso, B. A.. 2023. Water is life, particularly for women. Nature Water, 1(2):124. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00035-2]
Women ; Riverbeds ; Drinking water ; Households ; Water harvesting ; Dry season ; Monitoring ; Research ; Policies ; Sanitation ; Water supply / Kenya / Guatemala
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051724)
(0.86 MB)
3 Patrick, M.; Hennink, M.; Dasmohapatra, M.; Rout, M.; Clasen, T.; Caruso, B. A.. 2023. Influences on water source selection and use among women in rural Odisha, India. Frontiers in Water, 5:1040981. [doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2023.1040981]
Women ; Participation ; Water quality ; Menstruation ; Monitoring ; Climate change ; Decision making ; Households ; Drinking water ; Water security / India / Odisha
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052201)
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2023.1040981/pdf?isPublishedV2=False
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052201.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052201.pdf
(0.62 MB) (632 KB)
Introduction: Water is a crucial resource for many household functions, including drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing clothes. Globally, women bear the burden of water collection in households without piped water, as well as responsibility for household chores that require water. Carrying water has a number of health and safety risks, and women often rely on multiple water sources. The goal of this study is to understand how women in rural Odisha, India, an area with high coverage of improved water sources, make decisions on where to collect water.
Methods: This is a grounded-theory, secondary analysis of qualitative data collected from 69 women across life stages in eight villages in rural Odisha. Women were asked about their concerns and difficulties related to water and probed for details in a variety of contexts, including at night, during monsoon season, and during pregnancy.
Results: Women's standards for water quality vary depending on the planned use of the water. They report a willingness to travel long distances to collect better tasting water for cooking and drinking. When washing clothes, they often prefer a larger body of water. Bathing or washing menstrual cloths requires privacy. Their ability to access water varies based on individual characteristics such as: life stage, as recently married women have less freedom of movement than older women; health status, as older women report difficulties carrying water long distances; cyclical patterns such as seasonality, as certain sources are inaccessible during monsoon season; and characteristics of the water and the source itself, which encompasses distance, perceived quality, and privacy, among others.
Discussion: These findings indicate that public health interventions and surveys that monitor household water should not only consider the presence of a water source on the premises, but should also include multiple source use and consideration of individual members of households and the time of data collection, as water sources may not be equally available or acceptable to all household members at all times. In climate-sensitive areas, multiple water source use may become increasingly necessary as a response to changes in the environment, and should be considered in climate resilience interventions.
Methods: This is a grounded-theory, secondary analysis of qualitative data collected from 69 women across life stages in eight villages in rural Odisha. Women were asked about their concerns and difficulties related to water and probed for details in a variety of contexts, including at night, during monsoon season, and during pregnancy.
Results: Women's standards for water quality vary depending on the planned use of the water. They report a willingness to travel long distances to collect better tasting water for cooking and drinking. When washing clothes, they often prefer a larger body of water. Bathing or washing menstrual cloths requires privacy. Their ability to access water varies based on individual characteristics such as: life stage, as recently married women have less freedom of movement than older women; health status, as older women report difficulties carrying water long distances; cyclical patterns such as seasonality, as certain sources are inaccessible during monsoon season; and characteristics of the water and the source itself, which encompasses distance, perceived quality, and privacy, among others.
Discussion: These findings indicate that public health interventions and surveys that monitor household water should not only consider the presence of a water source on the premises, but should also include multiple source use and consideration of individual members of households and the time of data collection, as water sources may not be equally available or acceptable to all household members at all times. In climate-sensitive areas, multiple water source use may become increasingly necessary as a response to changes in the environment, and should be considered in climate resilience interventions.
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