ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS OF WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE

This study was carried out in T/A Chimaliro, Thyolo district, Malawi to assess the status of water, sanitation and hygiene practices among randomly selected households. A total of 73 households were selected and semi structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Information obtained from this study revealed that 51.43% households get their water from open dug wells, followed by 21.43% who fetched water from borehole and river and 5.71% obtained water from tap. It also noted that 56.1% treated their water before drinking and 43.9 % who did not treat. Among those that treated their water 72.41% filter the water using a cloth, 24.14.0% boiled their water and 3.45% use chlorine for water treatment. 94.5 % had household’s latrines, 5.5% had no toilet or practiced open or bush defecation. Among those that had toilets, 69.6% of the toilets did not have covers and 30.4% contained covers. Results also showed that 27% of the households had garbage bins and 63% of the households had no garbage bins. 50% of the households used buried as the method of waste disposal, followed by collection 33.33% and 16.67% of burning of the waste. While 72.6% respondents practiced hand washing, 27.4% did not wash their hands after using the toilet and among those who wash hands, 39% respondents said they wash their hands with a soap sometimes, 7% always wash their hands with soap, 25% they do not wash with soap and 2% they do not know washing hands with soap. 48.08% respondents said that they did not have enough water because of shortage of water supply in the community, followed by 36.54% which said water became scarce due to drought and another 15.38% saying it was due to frequently breakdown of the water facilities.