Abstract:

Introduction: Sanitation refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces whereas Hygiene is a set of personal practices that contribute to good health. It includes things like hand-washing, bathing and so forth.

Objectives: The purpose and rationale of this project was to improve sanitation and hygiene in Kerwa Sub county.

Methods: The project (2years) employed both qualitative and quantitative mixed designs in Kerwa Sub county, located, in Yumbe district, Uganda. Implementation period was from April, 2015 to November, 2016.

Results: The total number of households with latrines increased from 775 (43.3%) in the baseline to 1215 (67.8%) in the first year of project implementation then to 1579 (88.2%) in the second year. Similarly, open defecation dropped from 56.7% in the baseline to 32.2% in the first year of project implementation and further to 11.8% in the second year. Hygiene status, measured using hand washing, almost remained the same between baseline and first year of project implementation at about 0.9%. It significantly improved to 20.8% in the second year. Through application of statistical thinking, final reporting time reduced by 60 days, from 210 days before statistical thinking approach to 150 days after the application.

Conclusion: Statistical thinking remains a key process of continuous quality improvement in any industry.

Keywords: Sanitation and hygiene, statistical thinking.

References:

[1]. Amazon. (2017). Improving Performance through Statistical Thinking [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Improving-Performance-Through-Statistical-Thinking/dp/0873894677

[2]. Dig Deep. (2017). what is Sanitation? What is Hygiene? Is there a Difference? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://digdeep.org/faqs/what-is-sanitation-what-is-hygiene-is-there-a-difference/

[3]. Doug, H., Stu, J., Bob, M., and Tom, P. (2000). Improving Performance through Statistical Thinking. 2000 Minnesota Quality Conference. Retrieved from http://asq.org/statistics/2033/03/improve-performance-using-statistical-thinking.pdf

[4]. Galen, C. B., Donald, W. E., Lynne, B. H., Roger, W. H., Stuart, J. J. & Janice, E. S. (2010). Improving performance Through Statistical Thinking. Bangalore: New Age International (P) Ltd.

[5]. Kumar, S., Rouhani, S., Gautam, A., and Das, M. (2015). “Improving Sanitation and Hygiene Practices of the Rural Poor through Community Institutions in Uttar Pradesh, India”. New Delhi: ICRW

[6]. Uganda Bureau of Statistic [UBOS]. (2014). National Population and Housing Census 2014. Kampala: Author.

[7]. United Nations International Children Emergency Fund [UNICEF]. (2016). Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/wash/3942_3952.html

[8]. World Health Organization [WHO]. (2017). Sanitation [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/topics/sanitation/en/ World Health Organization [WHO]. (2011). Water, Sanitation and Hygiene _ Diarrhoea [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/elena/titles/bbc/wsh_diarrhoea/en/