Study on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Purification of Household Water among 210 Individuals of Urban Area of Patan District

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Consumption of contaminated drinking water is a major source of water related illness. About 88% of diarrhoeal diseases are attributed to unsafe drinking water, poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation. Nowdays, simple, low-cost and acceptable household water treatment technology are available. In many communities, there is limited knowledge and poor practice for water treatment. Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 210 community members living in Patan city. Head of the family (HOF) or any family member above 18 years was interviewed. Participant used at least one method of HWT was considered as good practices and given 1 scores, otherwise poor practices as 0 scores. Result: Most prevalent method was filtration by cloth (60.0%) followed by boiling (11.4%), and chlorination (11.0%). The high awareness regarding filtration (92.9%) and, boiling (86.2%). Only 16.7% respondents had good knowledge on HWT methods. Educational status was observed as a significant predictor factor for knowledge and attitude towards HWT. One fourth participants (29.5%) did not use any method of water purification. Conclusion: The attitude of respondents on HWT was positive but water purification practices were quite poor. There is wide gap between knowledge and practice of filtration and boiling methods.

Keywords

• Knowledge
• Attitude
• Practice
• Boiling
• Filtration