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IMPROVING HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN POOR RURAL COMMUNITIES: INVESTIGATING THE POTENTIAL FOR SUSTAINABLE HOUSEHOLD DRINKING WATER TREATMENT IN CHINA
Impact/Purpose:
The primary objective of this research is to understand if a drinking water treatment approach other than boiling could improve human and environmental health in rural China; and if so, under what conditions nonboiling HWT might be adopted. To accomplish this, the research will explore new methodologies for augmenting quantitative data with qualitative data to better inform the design of HWT promotion campaigns. Two primary research questions will guide the work: (1) Is a policy shift toward the promotion of non-boiling drinking water treatment in rural China warranted based on the potential benefits for human and environmental health? (2) If so, under what conditions are rural Chinese households likely to adopt non-boiling HWT?
Description:
This research will elucidate the most relevant behaviors and beliefs among groups and households with regard to HWT adoption. For the research community, the results of this study will add to the very limited knowledge and data on HWT in rural China. Furthermore, the findings will contribute to the broader research on HWT adoption and behavior change in rural areas, which is relevant especially to countries such as Mexico and Vietnam where many rural households also boil their water. The results also should demonstrate the potential environmental and health benefits of introducing non-boiling HWT in remote areas of rural China, which may in turn influence China’s rural development policy. Lastly, others might replicate this particular methodology of combining qualitative and quantitative methods to better inform the design of HWT promotion interventions elsewhere.
Potential to Further Environmental/Human Health Protection
An estimated 600 million rural Chinese regularly boil their drinking water. This research may reveal both a need for, and a means of, providing a more sustainable and less-harmful option for rural drinking water treatment. By switching to non-boiling HWT, human health and well-being should benefit from safe water, less respiratory disease (from reduced indoor air pollution), and more available time. Moreover, the environmental degradation that results from the needs-based harvesting of local biomass (and/or burning coal) should be reduced as well. The aggregated benefits to human and environmental health could be significant.