Mbu Daniel Tambi
This study is caption ‘Household Source of Water and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from 2004-2011 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey’. Contaminated source of water use for bathing, washing, drinking as well as in the preparation of food and poor hygienic environment are a major nuance to human health especially child health. To contribute in solving this problem, we shall examine the following objectives: (1) explore the determinants of household water supply, (2) quantify the effects of water source on child health outcomes; 3) decompose the water child health effects on child age 0 to 59 months; and (4) derived policy implication on the basis of our analysis. Methodologically, we will use the pool data of the third and fourth Cameroon demographic and health survey collected in 2004 and 2011 respectively after the 1991 and 1998 data. The 2SLS and ivprobit model that takes care of the endogeneity problem is used to estimate our results in STAA 11.0. Our result shows that factors such as parent literacy, breast feeding mothers, male household head; household social status, household size and urban residence are strong determinants of household source of water. We also observed that a marginal change in water supply will result to a corresponding increase in child health. Other factors positively associated with child health increase due to water effects include: household size, urban household residence. Child health of age 24 and 36 months is strongly affected by source of water supply. Other factors positively affecting children’s health of age 24 to 36 months are household size and place of residence. In terms of policy, we recommend that decision makers through the ministry of public health should intensify child health – good water supply campaigns, as well as to increase the supply of good drinking water following the WHO standards. This is a major step towards economic growth and poverty reduction in the different regions of Cameroon.
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