Impact of health, water and sanitation services on improving the quality of life of poor communities

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Good health is a major imperative for social, economic and personaldevelopment, thus an important dimension of quality of life. Quality of life, inturn, is significantly influenced by access to the goods and services providedby the State. Access to infrastructure and services such as water andsanitation, has direct effects on health. Thus, the delivery of health, water andsanitation services should ensure improved access to basic needs, enhancethe health profile of poor communities and their access to employmentopportunities. Safe clean water supplies and adequate sanitation servicestherefore are among the major determinants of health. Health-related servicessuch as water and sanitation should ensure a certain average life expectancyand eliminate mass disease and ill health.Mindful of the fact that there are many factors that determine the quality of life,the aim of the study was to investigate the impact of health, water andsanitation services in improving the quality of life among poor communities.To do this, this study adopted a comparative qualitative analysis approachbetween poorly serviced and adequately serviced areas. Subsequent to thefindings, this study espouses constructive suggestions and recommendationsthat could act as guidance to community development agencies' strategies inamelioration of the quality of life among poverty-stricken communities. Theresearch was based on a narrow model of services (health, water andsanitation services) that have impact on improving the quality of life amongpoor communities. The empirical findings of this study indicate these servicesto be insufficient to draw conclusive findings in other aspects of the survey.The research was conducted in a sample of 573 households in 6 communitiesin the Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces in South Africa. Thesample comprised 3 communities in the category classified as poorly servicedwith health, water and sanitation services, and 3 communities that wereregarded as adequately provided with these services. The data was gatheredby means of structured questionnaires, administered by the researcher with the assistance of a trained field worker. Additional, the data was gathered bymeans of a semi-structured, open-ended interview with a Sister-in-Charge ofa clinic in the rural villages. The interaction between variables on theimprovement of the quality of life were explored by means of basic statistics,which made it possible to assess the effects of independent and dependentvariables.The results of data analysis provided support for the proposition contained inthe premise of the study that although the provision of health, safe cleanwater and adequate sanitation services lead to improvement in the standardof living, their impact alone does not incorporate all the attributes thatenhance quality of life as suggested by mainstream schools of thought in thehealth sector. Poverty-related factors also have to be taken into account. Assuch, the findings of this study have shown that poverty, combined with poorpublic health conditions, inadequate nutrition, overcrowded poor qualityhousing, lack of accessible drinking water and sanitation, renderscommunities vulnerable to ill health.Given the poor socio-economic conditions prevalent in the communities underinvestigation, it was not surprising that tuberculosis was most prevalent in allareas. In line with the premise of this study, there were instances that povertyrelatedfactors such as income, housing and nutrition had significantinfluences with regard to improvement in the quality of life. It became evidenttherefore that in certain instances, health, water, and sanitation services aloneare not sufficient to make conclusive findings. Thus, the impact of povertyrelatedfactors such as income, housing and nutrition necessitate expansionof factors that impact on the quality of life to include their influence.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University