Household Water Vending, Quality, Handling Practices, and Health Risk Perceptions among Households with Children Under Five in Owerri Municipal Council, Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined household water vending, quality, handling practices and health risk perceptions among households with children under five in Owerri Municipal Council, Imo State, Nigeria. Five research questions and hypothesis guided the study.The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. The target population comprises households with one child under the age of five years residing within Owerri Municipal Council. Mothers served as key respondents.A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select a sample size of 422 respondents. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire tilled (HWVQHPHRPQ) was used for data collection.Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages and means, and the hypothesis by chi-square and binary logistic regression at the 0.05 level. Result established that vending was dominated by hawkers, sachet-water producers, tanker suppliers and borehole kiosk operators, most unregistered (grand mean = 3.37). Reliance on vendors was driven by irregular public supply, decayed infrastructure and institutional failure rather than preference, with perceived safety ranked lowest (grand mean = 3.52). Respondents agreed that vendors store water under poor hygienic conditions (grand mean = 3.34), that vendor water contributes to diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid among children under five (grand mean = 3.50), and that water access is linked to their children's illness (grand mean = 3.19). Diarrhoea occurred in 38.0% of children without safe water against 20.9% of those with access, and the null hypothesis was rejected (χ² = 12.78, df = 1, p = 0.0004; OR = 2.31, 95% C.I. = 1.45–3.68). The study concluded that dependence on vending reflects constrained choice, not ignorance, and recommended shifting oversight from registration to point-of-sale inspection.