Water, Sanitation and Health in Rural Areas: Issues and Challenges in Koussam (West Cameroon)

Access to water and sanitation services is essential for citizens' health and well-being. It thus contributes to respecting human dignity and improving citizens' livelihoods. In Cameroon, particularly in the locality of Koussam, access to water is still an ongoing challenge for a considerable proportion of the population. With this mindset, the present study was carried out to examine the modes of drinking water supply and sanitation to visualize the health risks to which the citizens of Koussam are exposed. To achieve this, the methodology consisted essentially of documentary research, backed up by field investigations involving social surveys of about 196 household heads. The results revealed that water supply to households strongly depends on the climatic season. During the dry season, the population predominantly obtains water from streams (38%) and boreholes (29%). Whereas during the rainy season, they rely more on rainwater (36%) and streams (27%). The surveys also revealed that the main people in charge of supplying water to the households are the children (57,14%) and women (32.54%). Therefore, to constantly have water, almost all households (80.95%) mainly store (77,55%) their water in aluminum pots for one to over three days, without prior treatment (80,95%) before drinking. The surveys indicated that sanitation is autonomous. The disposal of liquid and solid household waste primarily occurs in open spaces, in the green space, or in fields. Excreta, on the other hand, is mainly disposed of in precarious overflow latrines. All these results enable understanding that these under-mentioned set of socio-environmental factors above, contribute to the development of health risks such as malaria (46%), typhoid (38%), and dermatosis (8%), which are the most common pathologies mentioned by the household heads. These latter conditions are largely responsible for the hospitalization or death rates among children under the age of 6 in Koussam. It is therefore imperative for governments to invest better in the water and sanitation sector in order to reduce the risks posed to human health.