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Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi

People living in fishing communities have a high burden of preventable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related diseases but have often been neglected in research and policy. We explored practices and perspectives on WASH among fishing villages around Lake Malombe, Malawi. We employed a mixed m...

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Autores principales: Kalumbi, Limbani R., Thaulo, Chisomo, MacPherson, Eleanor E., Morse, Tracy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7559501/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32942533
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186703
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author Kalumbi, Limbani R.
Thaulo, Chisomo
MacPherson, Eleanor E.
Morse, Tracy
author_facet Kalumbi, Limbani R.
Thaulo, Chisomo
MacPherson, Eleanor E.
Morse, Tracy
author_sort Kalumbi, Limbani R.
collection PubMed
description People living in fishing communities have a high burden of preventable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related diseases but have often been neglected in research and policy. We explored practices and perspectives on WASH among fishing villages around Lake Malombe, Malawi. We employed a mixed methods design, and data were initially collected through participant observations (five weeks), followed by a second phase of qualitative interviews (n = 16), focus group discussions (n = 7), and quantitative surveys (n = 242). We observed that safe water sources were scarce; latrines were basic; and handwashing facilities were limited. Seventy-one percent (n = 174) of households collected water from unsafe sources (open wells and the lake). Eighty-six percent (n = 207) of households had basic short-term latrines. Twenty-four percent (n = 59) of households had handwashing facilities with soap. Qualitative data supported these observations and identified additional factors which compounded poor WASH practices including, a high transient population associated with the fishing trade, poor infrastructure design and construction which lacked consideration of the environmental factors, context and social and cultural norms. As such, fishing communities are underserved and marginalised with constrained access to WASH services, which must be addressed through behaviour-centered and context appropriate solutions.
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spelling pubmed-75595012020-10-26 Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi Kalumbi, Limbani R. Thaulo, Chisomo MacPherson, Eleanor E. Morse, Tracy Int J Environ Res Public Health Article People living in fishing communities have a high burden of preventable water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related diseases but have often been neglected in research and policy. We explored practices and perspectives on WASH among fishing villages around Lake Malombe, Malawi. We employed a mixed methods design, and data were initially collected through participant observations (five weeks), followed by a second phase of qualitative interviews (n = 16), focus group discussions (n = 7), and quantitative surveys (n = 242). We observed that safe water sources were scarce; latrines were basic; and handwashing facilities were limited. Seventy-one percent (n = 174) of households collected water from unsafe sources (open wells and the lake). Eighty-six percent (n = 207) of households had basic short-term latrines. Twenty-four percent (n = 59) of households had handwashing facilities with soap. Qualitative data supported these observations and identified additional factors which compounded poor WASH practices including, a high transient population associated with the fishing trade, poor infrastructure design and construction which lacked consideration of the environmental factors, context and social and cultural norms. As such, fishing communities are underserved and marginalised with constrained access to WASH services, which must be addressed through behaviour-centered and context appropriate solutions. MDPI 2020-09-15 2020-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7559501/ /pubmed/32942533 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186703 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kalumbi, Limbani R.
Thaulo, Chisomo
MacPherson, Eleanor E.
Morse, Tracy
Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi
title Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi
title_full Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi
title_fullStr Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi
title_full_unstemmed Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi
title_short Perspectives and Practices on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene from a Fishing Community along Lake Malombe, Southern Malawi
title_sort perspectives and practices on water, sanitation, and hygiene from a fishing community along lake malombe, southern malawi
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7559501/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32942533
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186703
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