Author(s)

DAVOD AHMADI, KATE SINCLAIR, HUGO MELGAR-QUINONEZ, PATRICK CORTBAOUI

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that most African countries are overwhelmed with problems related to water access. Women are disproportionality responsible for fetching water for drinking and domestic use. Notably, fetching water has been shown to influence various aspects of women’s lives. The main objective of this paper is to study the association between the amount of time mothers spend carrying water and factors such as socioeconomic characteristics, women’s empowerment (i.e., decision making, group membership, attitudes toward gender equality), income-generating activities (i.e., access to land and saving money (as proxies)), maternal nutritional status (i.e., Mid Upper Arm Circumstances (MUAC), dietary diversity score), childcare practices (i.e., breastfeeding, taking children for weighting or treatment for malnutrition, and children’s dietary diversity), and children’s anthropometric indicators. Data from a survey carried out in Ethiopia in 2016 was used in this article. Different statistical analyses formed the basis of the work. Firstly, descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Secondly, bivariate analyses were used to examine the association between exposure and outcome variables. Finally, binary logistic regression analyses were conducted. Results showed significant negative associations between the time spent fetching and saving money, group membership, attitudes toward gender equality, MUAC, dietary diversity, childcare care practices, and children’s anthropometric indicators. This paper supports the important link between water access and women and children’s nutritional statuses.

Keywords

water access, time fetching water, women’s empowerment, health