title: Safe drinking water and sanitary measures: A cross-sectional study in peri-urban community of Islamabad.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess sources of drinking water and its methods of disinfection, sanitary situation and waste disposal methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of 6 months from April 2015 to September 2015 in the village of Nurpur Shahan, a peri-urban slum area of Islamabad, Pakistan. Systemic random sampling method was employed to gather data from an adult household member aged between 18 and 45 years through a structured questionnaire. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis..
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 2,078 households were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 31.5±8.17 years. Moreover, 1,600(77%) residents did not disinfect drinking water. Boiling was the most common 378(18.2) method of disinfection. Majority of the households 1,936(93.2%) had latrine inside their houses. The most common mode of waste disposal was burning 951(45.8%), followed by dumping 601(28.9%) and throwing away in the street 415(20%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most participants did not disinfect drinking water.
authors.affiliation: Community Medicine, ShifaTameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad and Shifa College of Medicine, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Haider
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghazanfar
authors.affiliation: Community Medicine, ShifaTameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad and Shifa College of Medicine, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sualeha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saleem
authors.affiliation: Community Medicine, ShifaTameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad and Shifa College of Medicine, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sajida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naseem
authors.affiliation: Federal Medical and Dental College, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghazanfar
authors.affiliation: Community Medicine, ShifaTameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad and Shifa College of Medicine, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Umme Kulsoom
authors.initials: UK
authors.lastname: Khattak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004203:Disinfection / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000592:standards*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D012499:Sanitation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water
keywords: Disinfection, Drinking water, Refuse disposal, Sanitation. 