Knowledge, Self-Reported Practices, and Believes of Rural Women about Household Solid Waste Management at El Gharbia Governorate

Background: Household solid wastes disposal and management represents a major public health and environmental issue. Improper waste management harms not only human, but also the environment, plants and animals. Women play an important role in the process of household solid waste management. The aim of the study was: to assess knowledge, self-reported practices, and believes of rural women about household solid waste management at El Gharbia governorate Subjects and Method: Study design: A descriptive analytic cross-sectional study design was used in this study. Study settings: This study was conducted at four rural villages in El Gharbia Governorate. Study subjects: A convenience number of 1000 rural women were included in the study through home to home visit Tools of data collection: A structured interview schedule was developed by the researchers. It consisted of four parts: Part 1: Socioeconomic status of rural women. Part (II): knowledge of rural women about household solid waste disposal. Part (III): reported practices of rural women about household solid waste disposal and management. Part (IV): Beliefs of rural women about solid waste disposal and management. Results: the results of the present study revealed that, 62% of the studied women had fair and poor knowledge about solid waste management, and only 38% of them had good knowledge. About two-thirds (63%) of them reported un-satisfactory practice, and 82% of them had positive believes about solid wastes management. There were significant positive correlation between women's Knowledge, reported practice, and socio- demographic characteristics. Conclusion and recommendations: Although the majority of the studied rural women had positive believes about solid wastes management, about two thirds of them had fair and poor knowledge and unsatisfactory practice. Therefore, rural women need more attention from local and higher authorities to enhance their knowledge about solid wastes and in turn improve their practices toward household waste management.