Browsing by Subject "Water safety"
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- ItemOpen AccessA retrospective analysis of the circumstantial factors contributing to drowning incidents reported in the South African media(2022) de Beer, Willem; Saunders, ColleenThe first consensus guidelines for the uniform reporting of drowning were published in 2003, and specifically call for the precipitating factor to be described. The aim of this study was to describe the precipitating factors contributing to fatal drowning incidents reported in the South African media between January 2017 and March 2021 through a retrospective analysis of the Lifesaving South Africa media report database. There were 767 fatal drowning incidents reported during this period. Two thirds (66%) of reported incidents occurred during spring and summer, and the majority occurred in coastal provinces. Weekends and public holidays accounted for the highest frequency of reported incidents. Forty percent of reported fatal drowning victims were children under the age of 16 years. Approximately half (48%) of fatal drowning victims were swimming at the time of the incident, 17% drowned following accidental entry into the water and 11% were boating or sailing at the time of the incident. Understanding the activity immediately preceding the drowning event allows for more efficient and context appropriate design of prevention interventions.
- ItemOpen AccessPublic perception of drinking water safety in South Africa 2002-2009: a repeated cross-sectional study(BioMed Central Ltd, 2012) Wright, Jim; Yang, Hong; Rivett, Ulrike; Gundry, StephenBACKGROUND:In low and middle income countries, public perceptions of drinking water safety are relevant to promotion of household water treatment and to household choices over drinking water sources. However, most studies of this topic have been cross-sectional and not considered temporal variation in drinking water safety perceptions. The objective of this study is to explore trends in perceived drinking water safety in South Africa and its association with disease outbreaks, water supply and household characteristics. METHODS: This repeated cross-sectional study draws on General Household Surveys from 2002-2009, a series of annual nationally representative surveys of South African households, which include a question about perceived drinking water safety. Trends in responses to this question were examined from 2002-2009 in relation to reported cholera cases. The relationship between perceived drinking water safety and organoleptic qualities of drinking water, supply characteristics, and socio-economic and demographic household characteristics was explored in 2002 and 2008 using hierarchical stepwise logistic regression. RESULTS: The results suggest that perceived drinking water safety has remained relatively stable over time in South Africa, once the expansion of improved supplies is controlled for. A large cholera outbreak in 2000-02 had no apparent effect on public perception of drinking water safety in 2002. Perceived drinking water safety is primarily related to water taste, odour, and clarity rather than socio-economic or demographic characteristics. CONCLUSION: This suggests that household perceptions of drinking water safety in South Africa follow similar patterns to those observed in studies in developed countries. The stability over time in public perception of drinking water safety is particularly surprising, given the large cholera outbreak that took place at the start of this period.