Impact of Sewage on Health, Economic and Social Life of Rural People in Al-Hair - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper aimed to evaluate the health, social and economic effects of sewage on rural people's life in Al-Hair, Saudi Arabia. A total of 90 rural people, representing about 1% of the population of the study area, were interviewed using a questionnaire. Percentages, arithmetic means, and standard deviations were calculated.  The study revealed that 26.7% of the respondents had expressed a high degree of health impact from sewage and high social and economic effect with the percentages of 85.6% and 84.4% respectively. The interrelation between the perception of the diverse effects of sewage and people's personal characteristics indicate that age, gender, household size and education level, are key determinants of rural people’ perception on health, social and economic-related risks due to sewage. Therefore, there is need to sensitize rural people about risk-reduction measures of sewage. Additional research is required to suggest intervention framework for dealing with sewage in the study area with collaboration from different stakeholders. This will provide additional information to decision-makers for policy formulation in sewage treatment by considering the adverse effects on people's life and different potential roles from all partners.