The efforts made to solve environmental health problems in developing countries. A case from Mtwara town in Tanzania

Abstract

In this study, the cross-sectional study was designed to assess efforts to solve environmental health problems in Mtwara town, Tanzania. A questionnaire survey was used to collect perceptions from 685 secondary school students on environmental health problems and efforts to solve these problems. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were applied to describe the basic characteristics of the data, and principal components analysis was used to examine the dominant modes of variation of functional data in environmental health concerns of Mtwara town. The Relative Importance Index method was used to analyze the efforts made to solve environmental health problems. This study revealed seven environmental health issues that are pressing in Mtwara town (water supply, natural hazards, sanitation and hygiene, solid waste, air quality, climate change, and population concern). All of the questionnaire variables had significant factor loadings ranging from 0.429 to 0.854. In addition, the creation of environmental awareness among individuals, the existence of various campaigns, water purification, sociocultural beliefs, and mass media have been identified as the main efforts to solve the environmental health problems. The creation of environmentally conscious individuals was the highest among all items with a weight of 3.054545, and the schools' sensitivity to environmental health was the lowest with a weight of 1.314425. It is recommended that countries strengthen capacity building for more effective policy responses by consolidating the knowledge base and developing cross-sectoral cooperation strategies. In addition, socio-economic and political approaches should be introduced to sustainably link the environment and health.