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Investigating important interactions between water and food security for child health in Burkina Faso

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Abstract

Failures in either water systems or food systems, or a combination of system failures, could provide the underlying explanation for continued high levels of malnutrition in many regions. We focus on child health and offer the first spatially explicit analysis of the interaction between water source and food insecurity on children’s health in Burkina Faso, an African nation that continues to struggle with poor children’s health. We combine data from the 2010 Demographic and Health Survey, a small USAID water quality survey collected from community wells, and remotely sensed imagery. Results suggest that, in a few cases, reliable and clean water sources are positively correlated to children’s linear growth and weight gain, although in many regions, the interaction with community-level food production is critical to understanding health outcomes. The results also suggest that maternal health and nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding are foundational to the healthy development of young children. In all, the findings provide evidence of the importance of multi-sectoral interventions targeted at improving children’s health.

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Notes

  1. Improved water sources include the following: covered wells, protected springs, and piped water (into community or dwelling); and unimproved water sources include the following: unprotected spring, unprotected shallow wells, and surface water.

  2. Height and weight are commonly used measures of healthy growth. When height-for-age or weight-for-age z-scores fall below 2 standard deviations from a reference median, children are considered stunted or moderately malnourished, respectively. Both stunted and moderately malnourished children are at increased risk for illness and death (WHO 2006).

  3. In the analysis, we select out all children who are 25 months and younger to include those who have just turned 2 years old as well.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded, in part, by The University of Utah's Primary Children's Fellowship and by NASA under award number NNX16AI02G.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Kathryn Grace

  2. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Logan Frederick & Brent Lloyd

  3. University of Maryland, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Molly E. Brown

  4. USAID WA-WASH, Burkina Faso and Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Lakhdar Boukerrou

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  1. Kathryn Grace
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  2. Logan Frederick
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  4. Lakhdar Boukerrou
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Correspondence to Kathryn Grace.

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Grace, K., Frederick, L., Brown, M.E. et al. Investigating important interactions between water and food security for child health in Burkina Faso. Popul Environ 39, 26–46 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-017-0270-6

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