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Climate variability, water supply, sanitation and diarrhea among children under five in Sub-Saharan Africa: a

Donald Njatang Kemajou1

  • 1University of Yaounde II-IFORD, Yaounde, Cameroon

Journal of Water and Health
|April 28, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Climate change increases diarrhea risk in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), especially with poor water and sanitation. Adapting water infrastructure nationally and locally is crucial to reduce child diarrhea cases.

Area of Science:

  • Environmental Health
  • Epidemiology
  • Climate Science

Background:

  • Climate variability exacerbates diarrhea diseases, a major cause of child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
  • Inadequate access to improved water and sanitation amplifies diarrhea risk in vulnerable populations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the individual and combined impacts of climate variation, water supply, and sanitation on childhood diarrhea in SSA.
  • To analyze the spatial and household-level determinants of diarrhea incidence.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized multilevel mixed-effect Poisson regression with cross-level interactions.
  • Merged 57 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 25 SSA countries (2000-2019) with climate data.

Main Results:

  • 77.7% of diarrhea variation in SSA households is attributed to climatic differences between clusters.
  • Households in high-incidence clusters are 1.567 times more likely to experience diarrhea.
  • Increased temperature and rainfall correlate with more diarrhea cases in households with unimproved water/sanitation.

Conclusions:

  • Climate change significantly drives diarrhea prevalence in SSA.
  • Multilevel adaptation strategies in the water sector are essential at national and household levels.
  • Improving water and sanitation infrastructure is key to mitigating climate-sensitive diarrhea diseases.

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