Effect of Drinking Water Sources on the Health of Children Under Five in South Sudan

TL;DR

The study finds that using improved drinking water sources in South Sudan reduces the risk of diarrhea in children under five.

Contribution

This paper provides empirical evidence linking improved water sources to lower diarrheal morbidity in young children in South Sudan.

Findings

Improved drinking water sources reduce the probability of diarrheal infections in children under five.

About 25% of children in the study had diarrhea, with 25% of households using improved water sources.

Variables like residence and gender of the child showed weak significance but were not statistically significant at the 5% level.

Abstract

Introduction: South Sudan has higher rates of under-five morbidity and mortality compared to other countries in the African region. Diarrhea is one of the major causes of death among children under five, both globally and in South Sudan. One of the main factors contributing to diarrheal infections, especially among young children, is the source of drinking water. This paper aims to establish the effect of drinking water sources on diarrheal morbidities among children under five in South Sudan.

Methods: Using the Second South Sudan Household Survey data, the study employed a logistic regression model to gauge the effect of drinking water sources on the health of under-five children in South Sudan. In the investigation, under-five child health was proxied by diarrheal infection in under-five children. To account for potential endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity in the model, the research employed the two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) procedure and control function approach, respectively.

Results: The outcomes show that out of the sample of 6,307 children, 1,561 (24.75%) had diarrhea two weeks before the survey, and 1,567 (24.85%) belonged to households using improved drinking water sources. The logistic regression result shows that the drinking water sources variable has an average marginal effect (AME) of about -0.04 and a Z-statistic of -2.72 (P-value = 0.006). This means an improved drinking water source reduces the probability of diarrheal infections among children under five. The control variables comprising the residence of the under-five children and gender of the under-five children have been weakly significant at 10%. The residence of the under-five has a coefficient of about 0.02 with a Z-statistic of 1.65 (P-value = 0.099), while the gender of the under-five child has a coefficient of about -0.02 with a Z-statistic of -1.87 (P-value = 0.062). Since the P-values are greater than 0.05, the two variables are considered to have no effect on diarrheal infections among children under five years of age. The other control variables, namely water treatment, education of head of household, mother’s age, number of under-five children, under-five child age, wealth score, and time spent on fetching water, were all insignificant.

Conclusion: Given the result of the study, it can be concluded that drinking water sources significantly determine diarrheal illnesses among children under the age of five in South Sudan. Therefore, the population needs to use potable water sources that are protected and monitored. Furthermore, additional efforts are needed to ensure access to clean water for all citizens. Providing safe drinking water from improved sources would help reduce the prevalence of diarrheal diseases and improve overall public health in the country. The strength of the investigation is that it includes a large, diverse sample of 6,307 children from all ten of the country states with different access to water sources, ensuring the findings are generalizable to a broader population. This large sample size helps account for regional variations in water quality and infrastructure, increasing the reliability and external validity of the study's results. However, the research has limitations, highlighting the necessity for a new study utilizing updated data (when available) and a composite index between drinking water sources and sanitation.

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