Society for Family Health...Malaria Treatment

MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH- SAFE WATER SYSTEMS

Workplace Intervention

Stakeholder Collaboration

Focus on Youth

Malaria

Safe Water Systems

Improved Reproductive Health In Nigeria (IRHIN) Project ...read more

SAFE WATER SYSTEMS

Why the Safe Water System?
The importance of clean, safe water cannot be overstated. Water is critical to fostering and lengthening healthy lives for all populations. Ideally, all individuals would have an adequate supply of safe drinking water piped directly to their homes – this vision, however, re¬mains only that for many; a vision. Nearly 1.1 billion people in the developing world continue to lack access to safe water and even more gather water from improved sources and then store it unsafely in their homes, thereby nurturing the development of future illnesses.
Annually, two to three million children under five years of age die of diarrhoeal diseases. A large portion of these cases can be attributed to exposure to contaminated water. In fact, diar¬rhoea is responsible for 21% of deaths in children under five in developing countries.

Only 42% of the Nigerian population has access to improved
water supply (NDHS 2004). The Nigerian National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy, adopted in January 2000, made the supply of adequate water and sanitation the right of all Nigerians. Four years later, 55 million Nigerians still do not have access to improved water supply and diarrhoeal diseases remain a leading cause of death – second only to malaria – for children under five years of age.

Safe Water System Programme providing piped, chlorinated water to the entirety of a country’s population is an expensive endeavour and a long-term solution; it does not mitigate immediate concerns of access and contaminated water. The Safe Water System (SWS) was developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and prevention (CDC) and has been promoted and distributed by Population Services International (PSI) the technical partners of Society for Family Health since 1998. SWS is a water quality intervention that uses simple and inexpensive technologies to make water safe for its consumers. The SWS objective is to help users, at the point of use, through disinfection and safe storage. The intervention consists of three steps:

1. Point of use treatment: treat contaminated water with sodium hypochlorite solution purchased locally and produced by a local manufacturer or, without commercial sector involvement, from water and salt using an electrolytic cell

2. Safe water storage: store water in plastic containers with a narrow mouth/lid, and a spigot to prevent recontamination

3. Behaviour change techniques: utilize social marketing, community mobilization, motivational interviewing, communication, and education to increase awareness of the link between contaminated water and disease, the benefits of safe water and hygiene behaviours, and the purchase and proper use of the water storage vessel and disinfectant.

Page 2

Recent Research Activities

Global Fund