Accessing Water

Accessing Safe Water

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for People Living with HIV/AIDS

  • Source:
  • Beyene, H & Hailu, D. 2013. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development Vol 3 No 1, pp 81–85.

  • Summary:
  • A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the water, sanitation, and hygiene status and the knowledge, attitude and practice of home-based care clients of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) regarding water, sanitation and hygiene (WSH). Interviews and observation of WSH facilities were carried out on 331 randomly selected PLWHA in Hawassa City, Southern Ethiopia. Though the latrine coverage was high, 43% use latrines not easily accessible, 31% use contaminated latrines and 73.4% of the latrines lacked hand-washing facilities. Thirty-four per cent did not have a reliable source of water and 196 (59%) of the households stored water at home for more than one day. Women were more likely to practice personal hygiene as compared to their men counterparts. Although a good level of knowledge and favourable attitudes about WSH related health problems were observed, two-thirds of the participants believed that diarrhoeal infection is not preventable. HIV/AIDS and WSH programmes need to be integrated for better intervention activities in Ethiopia.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Diarrheal Diseases Evidence Base Handwashing (Hand Washing) Home-Based Care Household Water Treatment & Storage People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Inclusive WASH – HIV and AIDS Webinar January 17- 27, 2012

    • Source:
    • WaterAid

    • Summary:
    • Accessible water, sanitation and good hygiene practices are essential for the treatment and well-being of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) and their careers, yet PLWHA often face stigma and isolation within their own communities, limiting their access to basic water and sanitary services. This session provided participants an introduction to the integration of WASH practices into HIV-care and vice versa. At the Inclusive WASH website you can access a recording of Lucina Schmich's (Burnett Institute) Webinar on why WASH matters for PLWHA and a programming approach to incorporating WASH into various HIV settings, as well as Julia Rosenbaum's (USAID WASHplus) Webinar, which reviews national programming guidance, identifies small doable actions to improve practice, and introduces an integration tool kit and other resources available for program staff.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Best Practices and Lessons Learned People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Programming Guidance Sanitation/Feces Disposal Small Doable Actions Stigma Training Resources
  • Water and HIV: Working for Positive Solutions

    • Source:
    • Organ J. ACF International

    • Summary:
    • This report paints a vivid picture of the water and sanitation needs of individuals and households affected by HIV/AIDS in Zambia. These needs are particularly great in terms of access, quantity of water and design of facilities.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Evidence Base People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Considerations in Home-Based Care for People Living with HIV

    • Source:
    • Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Considerations in Home-Based Care for People Living with HIV.Catholic Relief Services.

    • Summary:
    • This guidance document offers water supply and sanitation facility and hygiene promotion design considerations and recommendations intended to increase access to these facilities by people living with HIV. This guidance document is intended for home-based care practitioners serving people living with this disease as well as water and sanitation engineers and technicians tasked with providing community water supply and household sanitation systems.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Best Practices and Lessons Learned Home-Based Care People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Programming Guidance Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • HIV and H(2)O: Tracing the Connections Between Gender, Water and HIV

    • Source:
    • West BS, Hirsch JS, El-Sadr W. 2012. AIDS Behav. 2012 Jun 4. Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.

    • Summary:
    • The health consequences for HIV-affected families of insufficient access to safe water and sanitation are particularly dire: inadequate access complicates medication adherence and increases vulnerability to opportunistic infections for persons living with HIV. The gendered nature of water collection and HIV care-with women disproportionately bearing the burden in both areas-presents an unrealized opportunity to improve HIV outcomes through investments in water/sanitation. Our findings suggest that the positive synergies of investing in water/sanitation in high HIV prevalence communities that are also expanding access to ART would be significant, with health multiplying effects that impact women and entire communities.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Evidence Base Gender Issues Journal Articles Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Improving the Lives of People Living with HIV through WASH

    • Source:
    • AIDSTAR-One. 2012.

    • Summary:
    • AIDSTAR-One has finalized a new training resource that aims to address problems around water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at health facilities to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV. This comprehensive, three-four day curriculum has two goals: to build the capacity of individual health care providers to adopt WASH approaches; and to provide guidance to program planners, and administrators in developing facility-wide WASH approaches. The curriculum provides detailed activities to improve WASH systems in health facilities by ensuring a safe and sufficient supply of water, sanitation, and basic hygiene practices exist at the facility level. In resource-limited countries, many essential practices are lacking in the majority of health care facilities making adequate patient care more difficult, particularly for people living with HIV (PLWH) and others who are more likely to get an infection.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Handwashing (Hand Washing) Household Water Treatment & Storage People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Programming Guidance Sanitation/Feces Disposal Training Resources
  • Innovations in Water and Sanitation – Helping People Living with HIV to Access Better Water and Sanitation Facilities

    • Source:
    • Catholic Relief Services

    • Summary:
    • A healthy environment is crucial for maintaining the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS, and for the success of home-based care. The WHO estimates that 85 to 90 percent of diarrheal illnesses in developing countries can be attributed to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene practices, such as handwashing with soap, treatment and safe storage of water, and safe feces disposal. Proper care requires not only safe drinking water, but also larger quantities of water for hygiene and sanitation purposes, and because of physical limitations caused by HIV/ AIDS, the design of water and sanitation facilities greatly influences effective access to these services. Unfortunately, water and sanitation services are extremely limited in many of the countries most affected by the HIV/ AIDS pandemic.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Diarrheal Diseases Evidence Base Handwashing (Hand Washing) Home-Based Care Household Water Treatment & Storage Innovation People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Water, Engineering and Development Centre Site – Water Supply and Sanitation for Disabled People and Other Vulnerable Groups

    • Source:
    • Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)

    • Summary:
    • The WEDC website provides research to improve knowledge and use of affordable aids, methodologies, and approaches by water and sanitation service planners and providers, and organisations and individuals who assist disabled people and their families in low-income communities maximise their access and use of the domestic water cycle. There are over 600 million disabled people in the world, of whom over 75% live in developing countries. The poorest suffer from inadequate diet, reduced access to health care, and poor hygiene -- each of which contribute to a higher risk of disability. In turn, disability exacerbates poverty, by placing an added strain on already fragile family economies, and disabled people face problems of access to services and opportunities, compounded by discrimination and social exclusion. Despite all these factors, the poor and disabled are largely ignored by governments and development programmes. WEDC aims to help with social integration, restore dignity to the individual disabled person, and reduce the workload of their family members by improving disabled people's access to and use of the domestic water cycle.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Disabled Patients Evidence Base Formative Research Handwashing (Hand Washing) Nutrition Sanitation/Feces Disposal Stigma Websites
  • Summary of WaterAid’s Work on HIV/AIDS: Equity and Inclusion – Key Lessons

    • Source:
    • WaterAid. 2011.

    • Summary:
    • Despite people living with HIV and AIDS having an increased need of access to WASH, limited progress has been made in terms of research, integrated programming and joint-advocacy regarding the crossover between WASH and HIV/AIDS. There is a clear need to investigate this link further. This briefing note summarises WaterAid’s work in this area, the key lessons learned and recommendations for the future.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Best Practices and Lessons Learned Evidence Base Handwashing (Hand Washing) People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Sanitation/Feces Disposal