Rima Kumari Sah¹, Prem Kumar Sah^2,, Jitendra Kumar Sah², Sudip Chiluwal², Sanjeev Kumar Shah³

Background: Safe drinking water and basic sanitation are crucial to the preservation of human health, especially among children. Water, sanitation and hygiene related issues are still a burning issue in the context of developing countries. Saptari district of Nepal, water supply coverage is 83% and sanitation coverage is only 25 % which is lower than national coverage. This could lead to poor hygienic practice in the community and it may adversely affect the health of vulnerable under-five children. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) among mothers of under-five children in rural households of Saptari district of Nepal. Methodology Cross sectional study was undertaken in 21 Village Development Communities of Saptari district of Nepal. Multistage sampling method was used and 420 mothers of under-five children were interviewed about their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding water, sanitation and hygiene. Results: Out of 420 mothers, majority of participants had appropriate knowledge (74.8%) and poor knowledge (25.71%) on water, Sanitation and hygiene. 57.14% participants had positive attitude on water, sanitation and hygiene while (42.85%) had negative attitude. Regarding practice, (60%) participants did good practice and (40%) did poor practice. Almost 94.3% of the respondents used hand pump as a source of drinking water, (34.8%) used latrine for defecation. More than half (56.19%) of respondents washed hand with soap and water after defecation. A statistically significant difference in the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of participants was seen according to their educational level at p<0.05. Conclusion: Present study showed that knowledge and attitude on safe practice of water, sanitation and hygiene among mothers were affected by their education level. Hence there is a need to spread information on the importance of proper practice on water, sanitation and hygiene in rural areas through available evidences based on BCC strategies and multiple dissemination channels.

knowledge, water, sanitation, hygiene, attitude, practice, mothers, under five children