Effect of Access to Potable water and Sanitation on rural Health in Tigray Region

This thesis examines the effect of access to potable water and sanitation on diarrhea morbidity and pneumonia incidence reduction. Probit model is used to analyze the effect of water and sanitation on diarrhea morbidity and pneumonia incidence reduction in this study, using 199 household heads using data collected in 2010/2011 by REST from three weredas of TigrayRegion. Results show that access to potable water and sanitation infrastructure lowers diarrhea morbidity and pneumonia incidence. Hygiene education and sanitation practices reduce diarrhea morbidity by 54 % that there is a positive relationship between having access to potable water and sanitation facilities and a decrease in the likelihood of households being exposed to diarrhea morbidity. Latrine with supper structure in households’ compound reduces pneumonia incidence by 22% and it is statistically significant at 5% with positive relationship with pneumonia incidence reduction. Keywords: Water access, sanitation, Morbidity, Pneumonia, Welfare Probit, Tigray