Measuring Water Quantity Used for Personal and Domestic Hygiene and Determinants of Water Use in a Low-Income Urban Community

Rebeca Sultana (), Nazmun Nahar, Stephen P. Luby, Sayeda Tasnuva Swarna, Emily S. Gurley, Charlotte Crim Tamason, Shifat Khan, Nadia Ali Rimi, Humayun Kabir, Md. Khaled Saifullah, Sushil Ranjan Howlader and Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen
Additional contact information
Rebeca Sultana: Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, Global Health Section, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
Nazmun Nahar: Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Stephen P. Luby: Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Sayeda Tasnuva Swarna: icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Emily S. Gurley: Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Charlotte Crim Tamason: Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, Global Health Section, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
Shifat Khan: icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Nadia Ali Rimi: icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Humayun Kabir: icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Md. Khaled Saifullah: icddr,b, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Sushil Ranjan Howlader: Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
Peter Kjær Mackie Jensen: Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, Global Health Section, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: There is a paucity of recent research on direct water quantity measurement for personal and domestic hygiene. We aimed to measure the water quantity used for personal and domestic hygiene and to explore the reasons and determinants for variation of water usage. We conducted this study from September 2014 to June 2016 in a low-income urban community in Dhaka. In 12 households, the team conducted a day-long bimonthly ethnographic observation for one year to measure the volume of water used per activity per person. They conducted 28 in-depth interviews to explore the reasons for changes of water usage. Participants used a median of 75 L (61–100) of water per capita per day (LCPD) and of this 75 LCPD they used a median of 39 LCPD (26–58) for personal hygiene. Women used less water than men. Individual and social norms, beliefs, and weather determinants determined personal hygiene. Water availability determined domestic hygiene (e.g., washing dishes, toilets and bathrooms). This study helps to elucidate a range of determinants of water usage of the participants from the participants’ perspective. The quantity of water used for domestic and personal hygiene and its relationship to fecal-oral transmitted disease can be explored in future research.

Keywords: water; hygiene; Bangladesh; qualitative research; diarrhea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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