Consumer drivers and barriers of WASH products use in rural Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the coverage of basic WASH facilities is very low. In response, government of Ethiopia and its development partners have been using sanitation marketing to promote and sell WASH products. Qualitative in-depth interview with households, supply chain actors, and stakeholders were conducted in four regions of Ethiopia to learn about current product use behaviours. The result showed presence of any latrine was related to greater awareness about importance to health. Financial constraints, unavailability of construction materials were major barriers to possession of latrines. Word of mouth was the dominant source of information on WASH products, with health extension workers being a respected source. The major challenges of supply chain actors at district level were finance, inadequate working space, and lack of business development skills. Lack of regular WASH products supply system at community level and lack of profound awareness about health benefit were the priority constrains to access latrines.