Water-Handling Patterns and Associated Microbial Profiles in relation to Hygiene in Babati Town, Tanzania

This paper was published by Tesha et al. (2019) in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health. The paper explores water-handling patterns and associated microbial profiles related to hygiene in Babati, Tanzania. This is a crucial area of research due to the rapidly urbanising centres in Tanzania. This often means that water supply infrastructure lags behind, affecting water availability and accessibility. Three water-handling chains/patterns were determined and the study found that people in Babati tended to rely on these chains equally. The most contaminated water was the untreated-source-straight-to-households chain. This research may inform the development of polices in the areas of household hygiene education, drinking water treatment, and water supply planning in urbanized towns in Tanzania and other developing countries.