Impact of water supply and sanitation on diarrheal morbidity among young children in the socioeconomic and cultural context of Rwanda (Africa)

This project studied the frequency and intensity of water contamination at the source, during transportation, and at home to determine the causes of contamination and its impact on the health of children aged 0 to 5 years. The methods used were construction of the infrastructure for three sources of potable water, administration of a questionnaire about socioeconomic status and sanitation behavior, anthropometric measurement of children, and analysis of water and feces. The contamination, first thought to be only a function of rainfall, turned out to be a very complex phenomenon. Water in homes was contaminated (43.4%) with more than 1100 total coliforms/100 ml due to the use of unclean utensils to transport and store water. This socioeconomic and cultural problem should be addressed with health education about sanitation. The latrines (found in 43.8% of families) presented a double-edged problem. The extremely high population density reduced the surface area of land per family, which resulted in a severe nutritional deficit (15% of the children) affecting mainly young children, rendering them more susceptible to diarrhea (three episodes/child/year). © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).