Copyright © 2013 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Impact of Water-Vending Kiosks and Hygiene Education on Household Drinking Water Quality in Rural Ghana

Abstract. Innovative solutions are essential to improving global access to potable water for nearly 1 billion people. This study presents an independent investigation of one alternative by examining for-profit water-vending kiosks, WaterHealth Centers (WHCs), in rural Ghana to determine their association with household drinking water quality. WHCs ’ design includes surface water treatment using filtration and ultraviolet light disinfection along with community-based hygiene education. Analyses of water samples for Escherichia coli and household surveys from 49 households across five villages collected one time per year for 3 years indicate that households using WHCs had improved water quality compared with households using untreated surface water (adjusted incidence rate ratio = 0.07, 95 % confidence interval = 0.02, 0.21). However, only 38 % of households used WHCs by the third year, and 60 % of those households had E. coli in their water. Recontamination during water transport and storage is an obstacle to maintaining WHC-vended water quality