Constrained access to water and sanitation has been associated with reduced quality of life, gendered interpersonal and community conflict, adverse pregnancy, and child health outcomes, and reduced educational attainment for girls. The impacts for women and girls can be contextually specific and bound within larger issues of gender norms and gender expectations. For example, the more difficult it is to access drinking water, the more likely it is to be the sole responsibility of women and girls within the household. This study aims to investigate the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) needs of women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa and it’s impact on psychosocial stress and mental health. This study is informed by previous research conducted in India that found a statistically significant correlation between sanitation-related psychosocial stress, psychosocial well-being, and quality of life. The WASH needs of women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa and relationships with psychosocial stress are likely to share many commonalities with findings from South Asia as well as key differences that warrant further exploration.  The proposed mixed-methods research will apply the emergent understanding of gendered impacts of water and sanitation on women and girls to urban and rural Tanzania using a life-stage perspective.

Global Health Project Grant Advisor/Mentor: Sarah Beckham, PhD