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Water sources, infrastructure, space and the dynamics of environmental diseases in Saboba District: Using GISInterviewsA number of persons representing various departments and units oftheir respective offices were interviewed. These included the MedicalAssistant (Wapuli Health Centre), Claim Officer (National HealthInsurance Scheme, Saboba), Operator (Saboba Community Waterdistribution plant), Head of the District Environmental Health unit (forthe former Saboba-Chereponi District) and some individuals. Theinterviews with the individuals such as chiefs, elders and opinion leaderswere unstructured type.CHAPTER 3Results and discussionData gathered from the field survey between August and October (2007)are presented and analysed in this section. The data are both secondaryand primary (from personal field survey using questionnaires andinterviews). The cross tabulation of respondents answers is done usingStatistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The questionnaires wereadministered to 130 respondents in five selected areas: CentralTownship, Toma and Chief-section, which form the Saboba town(bigger town) and its environs, Wapuli (a small town) and Bordagbalm (avillage). Chief-section area for the purpose of this study extended fromthe Chief-section itself, Borgbaln, Tilangbeni to Borkuln, while Tomaalso included Na-logni, Lower Kakpeni and its surroundings.Field problemsLike any social science research, this study faced problems such asunwillingness by some few respondents who normally perceive questionslike this as a mechanism to impose tax on them. The problem also arosebecause the people complained that a lot of studies have asked for suchinformation but nothing has been done. One other problem was theissue of getting as many women willing to answer questionnaires, as intheir views, questions concerning the area was primarily under men’sauthority. The more rural an area was, the more this constituted aproblem. The strategy used to address these concerns was to firsteducate the people that the research was purely academic and assurancethat the information they provide will be handled confidentially.Basic characteristics of respondentsTable 1a shows the number of respondents by place and sex. Thenumber of respondents was proportionate to the total population ofeach selected area. The table shows that 61.5% of the respondents weremales while 38.5% were females. In all the selected areas, the number ofmales is more than that of females, except in Chief-section area where53.3% were females as against 46.7% males. The variation in the sexesmay be due to the fact that issues concerning human welfare and thesociety in the communities are presumably under men’s authority in thedistrict.Table 1b also shows that Saboba district is predominantly youthfulpopulation as 41.5% of the respondents are between 14 and 20 years,35.4% (20-29) and only 3.1% are between 70 and 79 years.Table 2 shows that 27% (34) of the respondents have no education,5.6% (7) had basic education, 10.3% (13) for Junior High School (JHS)or Middle School (MS) and 48.4% (61) attended Senior High School(SHS). However, the level of education reduced to 4.8% (6) forTeacher/Nursing Training College (TTC/NTC) and 4% (5) had auniversity degree.15
Matthew Biniyam KursahTRITA LWR Master ThesisTable 3 shows that 45.6% (57) of the respondents were students and33.6% (42) are engaged in farming. There is low unemployment rate asonly 3.2% (4) identified themselves as unemployed.Disease pattern in Saboba districtA four-year trend of the top 10 diseases in the district from 2002 to 2005show a dramatic increases in the rates of disease prevalence; with 57.5%for Malaria, diarrhoeal diseases (58.6%), RTI (422.7%), intestinal worms(1481.5%) and Typhoid from 161 to 7,725, giving 4698.1% increase(Table 4). More surprisingly, Typhoid has gained the second top positionin disease prevalence in the district as at September 2007 (Table 5).Figure 4 depicts how the trend of diseases will have being (greenline) ifthe environmental diseases (Malaria, Typhoid and RTI) were reduced byhalf based on the objectives of the MDGs, through sound environmentaland water management practices, but the annual increase were tocontinue. The gains for the district will measure hundreds of thousandscedis through savings, increased productivity and reduce ill stress.Preventive strategies for environmental diseases in the district: Respondents’viewTable 6 shows the views of respondents on which diseases receive muchhealth awareness campaigns. Though, there are slight variations in eacharea, generally, Malaria with 32.0% (41) is ranked first. It is followed inthat order by 24.2% (31) for HIV/AIDS, 10.9% (14) for Guinea wormsand Poliomyelitis with 10.2% (13). This has implication on what diseasepeople think are most common in the district. Interestingly, only one(Malaria) of the four top leading diseases (Table 4 and 5) in the district isranked among the four targeted diseases in health campaigns.The most highly ranked diseases (Table 7) are used to determine the fourcommonest diseases in Saboba district. In the district as a whole; Malaria,Typhoid, Diarrhoea and Guinea worms are ranked as the most commondiseases. For the selected areas, Malaria, Typhoid, Guinea worms andDiarrhoea are ranked in Central town, while Malaria, Typhoid, Diarrhoeaand Guinea worms for Toma. Chief-section has Malaria, Typhoid,Diarrhoea and Guinea worms and Bordagbalm has Malaria andPoliomyelitis in its ranking. Lastly, Malaria, Typhoid, Diarrhoea andGuinea worms are the diseases thought to be highest in Wapuli.Table 7 shows that Malaria and Typhoid are seen as the most dominantdiseases in the district and in all the chosen areas, except in Bordagbalmwhere Poliomyelitis is placed second. Diarrhoea is placed third in mostareas – Toma, Chief-section and Wapuli. However, Guinea worms areplaced third in Central Township and fourth in the rest of the areasexcept in Bordagbalm. The placement of Guinea Worms by respondentsis not supported by hospitals and official reports which ranked Malaria atthe top, followed by Typhoid, RTI and diarrhoeal diseases. According toGGWEP, 2006, (Appendix II) Saboba district is almost at the zero caseof Guinea Worms infections, and DHMT (2006) has also stated thatGuinea worm had also seen a reduction from 86 to 51 cases in 2006. Thediscrepancies between respondents’ views and the official sources can beexplained by three main reasons; 1) the popular campaigns againstGuinea Worms supported by former US president, Jimmy Carter, haveironically made people to think that the disease is widespread (see Table6), 2) many Guinea Worms patients do not seek the orthodox medicaltreatment as there are many traditional treatments, and therefore thelikelihood of its under-recording is high, and 3) people still “reside” inthe devastation era of Guinea worms some decades ago. More16
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