Title
Assessment of the feasibility and acceptability of using water pasteurization indicators to increase access to safe drinking water in the Peruvian Amazon
Date Issued
01 July 2020
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Abstract
Approximately two billion people lack access to microbiologically safe drinking water globally. Boiling is the most popular household water treatment method and significantly reduces diarrheal disease, but is often practiced inconsistently or ineffectively. The use of low-cost technologies to improve boiling is one approach with potential for increasing access to safe drinking water. We conducted household trials to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of water pasteurization indicators (WAPIs) in the Peruvian Amazon in 2015. A total of 28 randomly selected households were enrolled from a rural and a peri-urban community. All households trialed two WAPI designs, each for a 2-week period. Ninety-six percent of participants demonstrated the correct use of the WAPIs at the end of each trial, and 88% expressed satisfaction with both WAPI models. Ease of use, short treatment time, knowledge of the association between WAPI use and improved health, and the taste of treated water were among the key factors that influenced acceptability. Ease of use was the key factor that influenced design preference. Participants in both communities preferred a WAPI with a plastic box that floated on the water’s surface compared with a WAPI with a wire that was dipped into the pot of drinking water while it was heating (77% versus 15%, P < 0.001); we selected the box design for a subsequent randomized trial of this intervention. The high feasibility and acceptability of the WAPIs in this study suggest that these interventions have potential to increase access to safe water in resource-limited settings.
Start page
455
End page
464
Volume
103
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Biología marina, Biología de agua dulce, Limnología Biotecnología ambiental
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85087911550
PubMed ID
Source
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
ISSN of the container
0002-9637
DOI of the container
10.4269/ajtmh.18-0963
Sponsor(s)
Financial support: The trials of improved practices were supported by NIH research training grant #R25 TW009345 awarded to the Northern Pacific Global Health Fellows Program by the Fogarty International Center. Partial support for this research came from a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grant, P2C HD042828, to the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. C. A. E. acknowledges funding from the Wellcome Trust (awards 078340/Z/05/Z, 105788/Z/14/Z, and 201251/Z/16/Z), the Joint Global Health Trials consortium (MRC, DFID, and Wellcome Trust award MR/ K007467/1), the STOP TB partnership’s TB REACH initiative funded by the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (awards W5_PER_CDT1_PRISMA and OPP1118545), and the charity IFHAD: Innovation For Health And Development.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus