Project

Running Head: HEALTHCARE 1

Implementation of a community-based water system in Rural Honduran Community.

Joseph Toole

Case Studies in Public Health

2 May 2017

Introduction

The world has a constant demand for domestic water which is on the increase as population increases. The necessities of life include among other things, food, which is very pivotal for humanity. Food preparation requires water, while sanitation is almost impossible without water. Domestic use of water is henceforth very central towards the daily activities of any household. The inside and outside use of water in a typical home include, washing dishes, cooking as earlier mentioned, bathing, laundry, and other household activities. UNESCO has highlighted the crisis of domestic water to be a primary cause of sanitation illness. Either lack of water or inadequate domestic water can enhance the spread of diseases such as Typhoid, Dysentery, diarrhea, lead poisoning, cholera, and amoebiasis. The Government and Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) have a collective responsibility of ensuring that the community stays safe from the water-borne illness. Still, it is their duty to make sure that the society gets supplied with free, clean and adequate water which is their underlying commodiy (Rayner, & Lang, 2012).

Challenges with the implementation of a community-based water system in Rural Honduran Community.

San Gabriel is a typical Honduran rural community where 60% of all households utilize water from the wells. In this area, only 5% of the neighborhood have the complete access to piped water. The wells are also highly contaminated with fecal coliform which also proves a point as to why this area is highly exposed to contaminated water. San Gabriel also hosts precarious and unstable homes which comprise of 60% homes with dirt floors and no sealed windows. The majority of those homes have 35% adobe bricked walls, 14% cemented walls, 6% mud-walled. The roofing pattern of these homes includes 80% ceramic tiled roofs, 20% metal laminate even though most of the households comprising 75% have been connected to electricity.

Consequently Rutjes, , Lodder,, Van Leeuwen, & de Roda Husman, (2009), maintain that the World Health Organization (WHO) is primarily concerned with the health of the world states that more than the 80%cases of diarrheal diseases results from the fecal-oral pathway. Contaminated food and drinking water remain the biggest agents of transmission. Tulchinsky, & Varavikova, (2014) State that Efficient water supply is the primary preventive factor of this disease. San Gabriel experiences several instances of diarrheal disease which has claimed lots of children lives. Whereas education on water could be useful as a prevention strategy, installation of piped water is the best basic prevention method of waterborne illness. Notably, in San Gabriel, politics has played a part in the delay of piped water installation. Indeed, the various people living in the area have different political affiliation which has seen the area lag behind in solving the w3ater crisis.

Consequently, this water project seeks to enhance hygiene promotion with the aim of dropping the rate of diarrhea occurrence. Part of the project also entails the elimination of gray water which is often the water left over from washing utensils, cleaning, bathing or cooking. The project seeks to initiate programs like irrigation and agriculture, where the gray water can get recycled. The success of the project will be realized after the San Gabriel community gets liberated from the water problem issue. Child deaths are also likely to get minimized since water that constitutes the greatest proportion of their weight will be availed.

Conclusion

The community in San Gabriel has taken the best approach of contacting Virginia and Travelers University School of Public Health who have started a Portable Water For All (PWFA) initiative. The initiative seeks to work with other relevant partners including Honduran Ministry of Health, with the motive of assisting the community in shielding themselves from poor sanitation and hygiene diseases.

Reference

Rayner, G., & Lang, T. (2012). Ecological public health. HEALTH OF PEOPLE, PLACES AND PLANET, 617.

Rutjes, S. A., Lodder, W. J., Van Leeuwen, A. D., & de Roda Husman, A. M. (2009). Detection of infectious rotavirus in naturally contaminated source waters for drinking water production. Journal of applied microbiology, 107(1), 97-105.

Tulchinsky, T. H., & Varavikova, E. A. (2014). The new public health. Academic Press.