Determinants of households' access to improved drinking water sources in Somalia: insights from the Somali Integrated Household Budget Survey (SIHBS) 2022.

BACKGROUND: Limited access to improved sources of water is a worldwide apprehension, predominantly in lower-middle-income nations with limited infrastructure. Limited and unsafe drinking water contributes to poor health outcomes, mainly among children. To safeguard the health and well-being of the community as a whole, it is essential to have access to safe drinking water. In Somalia, rural households have more limited access to drinking water fetched from improved sources compared to those living in urban areas. This research intended to analyse access to better drinking water sources for households and associated determinants, utilizing the 2022 Somali Integrated Household Budget Survey (SIHBS) data.

METHOD: The research employed the SIHBS 2022 dataset, a nationally representative dataset. To provide a concise summary of the findings, descriptive statistics were performed. The relations between the explanatory and predictor variables were studied utilizing the Pearson chi-square test. In contrast, a multivariate logit regression model was utilised to determine whether risk factors are significantly related to the criterion variable (water sources). The study analyzed the SIHBS 2022 dataset, which contains 7212 sample households, for its representativeness.

RESULTS: This study found that 77.1% of Somali households have access to better sources of drinking water. The gender of the head of household (AOR: 2.230, 95% CI: 2.005-2.472), education status of the family head (AOR: 2.938, 95% CI: 2.083-4.142), household size (AOR:1.472, 95% CI: 1.326-1.633), place of residence (AOR: 2.367, 95% CI: 2.095-2.675) as well as the region of the respondent (AOR: 1.903, 95%, CI: 1.368-2.645), were all statistically significant predictors associated to household's access to better-quality sources of drinking water.

CONCLUSION: This article examined the determinants that impact access to potable water from better sources. While overall national access to better-quality water is good, a gap between urban and rural water access exists. To ensure that households headed by females, particularly in rural settings, have adequate access to water from improved sources, the government and its value development partners should develop policies to inform the community about the benefits of improved water sources, thereby reducing WASH-related health problems.