Effects of Single and Combined Water, Sanitation and Handwashing Interventions on Fecal Contamination in the Domestic Environment

Fecal contamination is found in the domestic environment; however, it can be reduced by the action of hygiene, water, and sanitation that can be combined. Furthermore, single and combined water treatments were implemented, also for hand-washing and sanitation. The testing took for about two years where fecal indicator bacteria was found in source and stored drinking water, in food, or other objects that were there.  The prevalence of E. coli (Escherichia coli) that is in stored drinking water and food is then reduced and their concentrations, for water it is reduced by 50% and 1-log is the concentration, as for food it is reduced by 30% and .5 is the concentration where single water treatment is received. However, on these findings the fecal contamination reduction by (WSH) did not fully work, and for the E.coli reduction in groundwater or other objects by other interventions did not work too. Improvements on these interventions but should mostly be for WSH since studies indicate that other interventions did have more reduction on contamination than WSH and should be required to be able to reduce the fecal contamination found in water, food, and other objects to be able decrease the risks of diseases there are there due to the bacteria. It also results that sanitation, hygiene, and water does reduce fecal contamination, but not within the whole environment, but there are treatments to help this cause. As for low-income countries hand washing would be a small support to reduce fecal contamination.

Ercumen, A., Mertens, A., Arnold, B. F., Benjamin-Chung, J., Hubbard, A. E., Ahmed, M. A., . . . Colford, J. M. (2018). Effects of Single and Combined Water, Sanitation and Handwashing Interventions on Fecal Contamination in the Domestic Environment: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial in Rural Bangladesh. Environmental Science & Technology. doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b05153