Caregivers Food-water Handling Practices, Knowledge and Prevalence of Food-water Borne Diseases in Chidren (1-5 Years) of Yatta, Kenya: a Case of Sand Dams

Abstract

The building of sand dams is the elected course of action to remedy the dry conditions. Sand dam creation in Yatta is depends on local expertise in harvesting, sieving, storage of water. This study aimed at assessing caregivers‟ food-water handling practices, knowledge and prevalence of food-water borne diseases in children (1-5 years) of Yatta, Kenya: a case of sand dams . Using Fischer‟s method, a sample of 50 respondents was determined as sufficient for the study. The 60 respondents were selected purposively from 5 wards. Two dams from two wards were also selected purposively for this study. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data from the respondents. The data was then analyzed using SPSS version 25 and MS Excel. The results indicate that children who drank untreated (or poorly treated water) were suspected to suffer from water-borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera. Almost all respondents (89%) highly suspected dam water to be the main cause of water-borne illnesses. It was found that some respondents (39.3%) did not use any treatment method for dam water while 35.7% used chlorination, 21.4% boiling and 3.6% allowed the water to settle before use. About 33% respondents were found to acquire food from the open air market, 23% stored their foodstuff in an open area in the house, 71% alongside utensils and other kitchen ware, 26% in a granary and finally 4% in an indoor pantry. 14.28% of the respondents stored their water in plastic containers without lid while 66.07% stored in plastic with lid and 19.64% in metallic containers. Level of education was attributed to respondents‟ knowledge on treating dam water with 17.9% having gone up to primary education and less than 8.9% having not gone to school at all. Some of them had never heard information concerning water treatment methods (7.1%). It was found that the majority did not use any treatment method of dam water, accounting to 39.3%, 35.7% used chlorination method, 21.4% boiling, and about 3.6% allowed the water to settle. This study concludes that there is poor water handling practices among caregivers using dam water in Yatta and there is need for training and awareness creation on proper water handling practices.