Assessing Impact of Waterguard Solution in Diarrhea Prevention: A Case Study of Nigeria

Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death in developing countries especially among children under five. Episodes of diarrhea in Nigeria have been linked with poor hygienic conditions of some communities and households. The sources of water and availability of sanitary facilities are important determinants of a household's health status. Findings from a national household based survey in Nigeria indicated that less than half of the Nigerian population has access to clean water. The Society for Family Health (a public health non-governmental organization) in its efforts to address this problem, promoted a sodium hypochlorite (a water disinfectant), with the brand name ‘Waterguard®. An impact evaluation study was conducted in order to assess how effective the intervention was. A Fisher's exact test was used to test for any possible association between use of Waterguard and evidence of diarrhea. Users of Waterguard were significantly less likely to experience diarrhea (p