Knowledge and practices of households on safe water chain maintenance in a slum community in Kampala City, Uganda

Adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is essential to ensure good health and wellbeing. In fact, 85% of the disease burden in Africa could be prevented through improved WASH [1]. Indeed, through improvements in WASH, 502,000, 280,000, and 297,000 deaths due to inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and poor hand hygiene respectively could be averted [2]. Specifically, interventions aimed at improving water quality have been associated with diarrhea and infectious disease reductions [3, 4]. This notwithstanding, many countries including Uganda are still grappling with challenges related to water access with 663 million people in the world estimated to lack access to improved water supplies, half of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa [5]. The situation is worse in slum areas which are usually characterized by inadequate access to water and thus a high burden and episodic outbreaks of WASH-related infections such as typhoid fever, cholera, and dysentery [6‐8]. Another key indicator of water supply is water quality, and studies in slum settings found high levels of contamination attributed to inappropriate technology and practices for poor waste disposal [9‐11]. Therefore, in addition to ensuring access to safe water particularly in slums, similar efforts should be made to ensure that the provided water is of good quality through maintaining the safe water chain.

Safe water chain includes all processes involved in ensuring that water is not contaminated through all stages from the water source to consumption. Key stages in the safe water chain include water collection, handling, transportation, storage and treatment, and consumption. Although interventions focused on improving household water quality such as improving water storage or treatment have registered positive outcomes in terms of disease reduction [12, 13], measures may not be readily accessible by most households in slums. This further emphasizes the importance of taking practicable measures to avoid water contamination along the water chain. Also, knowledge of communities about safe water chain maintenance interventions and the extent to which they are practiced is important in planning feasible and effective intervention for slum settings. In addition, previous studies in slum settings have shown deficiency in knowledge on WASH among community members [11, 14].

In Kampala, 53.6% of the urban population live in slum settings [15]. Majority of the households in Kampala slums collect their drinking water from the piped water system, regarded as safe, provided by National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) [16]. However, disease trends in Kampala slums portray them as prone to diarrheal disease outbreaks [7] including a 2014 reported outbreak of typhoid attributed to consumption of contaminated water [17]. These diarrheal disease outbreak occurrences are influenced by household safe water chain practices. This study therefore assessed knowledge and practices of households on safe water chain maintenance in slum communities in Kampala City, Uganda.

This study assessed knowledge and practices of households on safe water chain maintenance in households in Kasubi slum in Kampala, Uganda. Our findings show that the major sources of domestic water were private tap stands and protected springs. Most of the households paid for water, treated their water for drinking by boiling, and knew the sources of water contamination and dangers of drinking contaminated water. However, only a third of the households reported practices that maintain the safe water chain. Household heads who were females and students and/or attained post-primary education were more likely to maintain the safe water chain. Household heads who said that most contamination of water happens during storage were also more likely to maintain the safe water chain.

The major sources of domestic water in our study were private taps (71.6%) and protected springs (20.5%). The use of private tap stands is not surprising because many areas within the city including slums in Kampala are supplied with piped water from NWSC, a government agency responsible for treatment and distribution of water to the public. Similar studies done in Ghana and India have also found tap stands as a popular water source in slums [34, 35]. Slums most likely occur in low lying areas were protected springs are usually located. Protected springs and tap water are generally considered improved water sources and are therefore expected to provide relatively good quality water [36]. However, recent studies in Kampala showed that most protected springs were contaminated [10, 37]. Most households paid water bills which is expected in an urban setting since majority are connected to piped water which are metered and paid for by the final consumer.

From our study, most of the household heads knew the different ways by which water could get contaminated. Majority of respondents also knew the dangers of drinking contaminated water such as increased risk of diarrheal diseases. Since slums in Kampala have in the past experienced frequent outbreaks of diarrheal diseases especially cholera and typhoid [38], the high level of knowledge could be attributed to the intense awareness campaigns that are conducted whenever these outbreaks occur. In our study, only one third of the households maintained safe water chain management practices. This implies that two thirds of the population in slums in Kampala are at risk of drinking unsafe water and acquiring diarrheal diseases due to lack of maintenance of the safe water chain. Our findings corroborate with findings from a study in India where majority of the urban population did not observe safe water chain practices [39]. Therefore, there is a need to increase slum communities’ awareness on maintenance of the safe water chain.

Most households used collection and storage containers that would minimize contamination which is a good practice. However, few households were cleaning their containers regularly. In addition, most of the containers were not covered, and only a few households used a separate cup to draw drinking water from the containers (16.7%). This practice is sometimes discouraged with preference for small-mouthed containers. Educating people about the risk and pathways of water contamination can help improve water quality and consequently mitigate risks of diarrheal diseases. Another finding from our study is that boiling was the most common method of treatment of drinking water. This finding is similar to that from another Ugandan study that established that majority (89%) of the households were boiling their drinking water [40]. Boiling is known to be the most popular water treatment method especially in low-income countries [41]. It is a reliable treatment method against microbial agents if well used, and water thereafter well stored [41, 42]. Practicing such simple and cheap interventions at household level can lead to an improvement in the quality of drinking water which eventually leads to reduction in diarrheal diseases [43].

Female-headed households were more likely maintain safe water chain management practices. Our finding is in line with a study conducted in Cameroon which indicated that female-headed households were more likely to invest in the effort of fetching clean water and ensuring proper storage [43]. It has also been shown that women often engage in water collection, storage and treatment, and use compared to men in communities especially in slums [44, 45]. Women are at higher risk of water-borne and water-based infections such as diarrhea, ascariasis, and trichuriasis than men, as such observing high standards of safe water chain to minimize water-borne disease risk is imperative to them [46, 47]. Student-led households were more likely to observe the safe water chain as compared to those who were engaged with business. This finding was understandable as students are likely to be routinely taught WASH aspects at school. Indeed, some studies have demonstrated that students can learn many things at school and influence behavior change in their homes and communities [48, 49]. This shows that education can influence household practices on safe water chain. Household heads who had attained post-primary education were more likely to observe safe water chain compared to those with primary or no education. This finding is in line with studies [50‐52] which indicated that high levels of education result in adoption of better decisions on safe water management. Educational awareness programs on safe water chain are needed to benefit individuals with low education status and consequently minimize risk due to poor safe water practices.

Contamination of water can occur at any point in the water chain from the source to the point of use [53, 54]. In our study, household heads who thought most contamination occurs during storage were more likely to observe safe water chain compared to those who thought it occurs more at the source. It is known that significant recontamination of water can occur through drawing it with cups and hands as reported in other studies [55, 56]. Evidence also shows that point-of-source bacterial contamination may be rare when water is obtained from standpipes or taps as in the case of this setting. In fact, many city water supplies are treated centrally in conventional systems but contamination could occur mostly through unsafe water storage [57, 58]. However, there is a need to educate slum dwellers on critical safe water chain practices that need to be maintained along the entire drinking water chain as demonstrated in an Ethiopian study on the effect of WASH on childhood illnesses [59].

Our study is limited by the fact that all practices reported about were self-reported and could have been subject to social desirability bias. However, the study makes a significant contribution regarding safe water chain maintenance in an urban slum which has rarely been researched. The study findings could also be generalizable to other slums in Kampala city as these have been reported to be similar in context.

Knowledge on the safe water chain was generally satisfactory although only a third of the households maintained the safe water chain. Female-headed households, post-primary educated household heads, and student-led households were significantly more likely to maintain the safe water chain. Therefore, there is a need to improve safe water chain practices among slum household through continuous health education on the importance of using and drinking safe water.