Hygiene: prepaid water negative for handwashing, South Africa
Updated - Thursday 28 June 2007
Prepaid water meters impact negatively on handwashing behaviour, raising the risk of water-borne diseases in lower-income communities, a report [1] by health experts has found. The report was conducted for the Municipal Services Project. The research involved 107 households from Soweto in Johannesburg. Evidence found that those being asked to prepay for their water were practising poorer hygiene behaviours than their neighbours who were still on "deemed consumption". The study found that there was a significant difference in the proportion of household carers with deemed (43%) versus prepaid water (77%) who never washed their hands with flowing tap water. "In conclusion, in a country where poverty is rife, where there is soaring unemployment, where there is a massive housing backlog, and where hunger is a daily reality, it is unrealistic to expect poor people to purchase, in advance, a basic good such as water," added Sanders.
[1] Haffejee, F. ; Chopra, M. and Sanders, D. (2007). The problem of handwashing and paying for water in South Africa. (Occasional papers series / Municipal Services Project ; no. 13). Kingston, Ont., Canada, Queen’s University, Municipal Services Project. ISBN 978-0-86810-437-9. PDF file (600 KB).
Contact: Professor David Sanders, Director, School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, dsanders@uwc.ac.za
Source: News 24, 15 May 2007
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Comment from other visitors
Hygiene, handwashing and prepayment meters
Kathy Eales 14 Apr 2011, 16:55
I've gone through the MSP report carefully, and it seems to me that the report's conclusions are not supported by their findings. In fact, the research findings clearly show that those with pre-payment meters actually practice better hygiene in key areas! The research looks at six practices, and reports on findings in those six areas: Washing hands in running water - more people with ppms never do this Washing hands in a basin of clean standing water - more people with ppms never d... Read more