Evaluating Population Services International's Household Point-of-Use WaterTreatment Program in Rwanda, 2006-2010

The Point-of-Use-Zinc (POUZN) project is a USAID-funded project implemented by Abt Associates in partnership with Population Services International (PSI). The project is a diarrhea prevention program that engages the private sector (commercial and non-governmental organization) in health product marketing and communications to promote behavior change. While the five-year program was implemented in five countries, this paper will focus on program performance in two countries, Rwanda and Benin.Rwanda, a small country with a population of more than 10 million, has one of the highest under-five mortality rates in the world: one in 10 children dies before reaching his/her fifth birthday. In October 2007, PSI conducted a baseline household survey with caregivers of children under the age of five, which showed that 32 percent of urban and 42 percent of rural Rwandans treat their drinking water with a chemical product. In the cases where a household treated with a product other than Sûr' Eau (the PSI-marketed chlorine product in Rwanda), options included oxidizing agents such as bleach and permanganate. A follow-up study was conducted in March 2010 to evaluate the success of PSI's marketing campaign to address household water treatment with Sûr' Eau We found that households exposed to at least one communication message were significantly more likely to say they had ever heard of Sûr'Eau, know where to purchase Sûr'Eau, ever use and currently use Sûr'Eau, and know that the main cause of diarrhea is dirty drinking water. We found that households not exposed to the messaging in 2010 were more likely to know where to buy Sûr'Eau ever use Sûr'Eau compared to the 2007 baseline (p