Sanitation and Hygiene

The single greatest cause of endemic diarrhea is poor hygiene.

To maximize the impact of each well it creates, Lifeline establishes a water user committee in each village to care for the well and sanitation teams to teach proper hygiene/sanitation pratices.

The emphasis of the program is on proper hand washing, safe water storage and handling, hygienic cooking practices, and improving and protecting water sources.

These interventions could hardly be more cost-effective, as studies have shown that proper hand-washing alone can reduce the incidence of diarrheal diseases by more than 35%.