Scaling Up Handwashing and Rural Sanitation : Findings from a Baseline Survey in Tanzania
Since 2007, the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) has provided technical assistance to local and national governments implementing large rural sanitation and handwashing promotion programs in various countries. In Tanzania, handwashing with soap a...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/09/16914143/scaling-up-handwashing-rural-sanitation-findings-baseline-survey-tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17379 |
| Summary: | Since 2007, the Water and Sanitation
Program (WSP) has provided technical assistance to local and
national governments implementing large rural sanitation and
handwashing promotion programs in various countries. In
Tanzania, handwashing with soap and sanitation programs were
phased into 10 rural districts in the second half of 2009.
This report presents summary descriptive statistics for key
demographic, socioeconomic, hygiene, health, and child
development variables based on a survey of approximately
1,500 households. It offers a glimpse at the general status
of sanitation and hygiene practices in some of the
program's target areas before the beginning of
implementation activities. In the targeted areas in rural
Tanzania, the typical household is headed by a male and
comprises five members. Most houses are single detached
dwellings with mud or brick walls and clay floors.
Households typically use kerosene for lighting and wood for
cooking, and about half of households own a few animals and
a bicycle. Handwashing behavior is known to be difficult to
assess. In this study, we relied on two sources:
self-reported handwashing at critical times and, as a proxy
measure, spot-check observations of whether the household
had a designated place for handwashing with both soap and
water. An additional measure assessed the cleanliness of the
caretaker's hands through direct observation again to
serve as a proxy indicator of handwashing with soap
behavior. The survey revealed that there was limited
baseline knowledge of the critical handwashing times among
the target households prior to the program, indicating room
to improve handwashing behavior. Likewise, the survey
indicated limited access to improved water sources, a
scarcity of pit latrines with slabs, and a non-negligible
percentage of open defecation practice in the studied
households. Underlying challenges also included unsafe
facilities for small children and poor practices related to
disposal of child feces. The data presented in this
technical report provides a snapshot of the conditions of
the target population prior to the start of the sanitation
and handwashing programs. An impact evaluation of the
programs, which will rely exclusively on post-intervention
data, will be carried out during 2012; a full report will be
published in 2013. The study hopes to enable a close
examination of the links between poor sanitation,
handwashing behavior, and health, and provide evidence for
future projects in rural Tanzania. |
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