Saneamento básico inadequado e saúde da população: caso Bairro de Mindará, Cidade de Bissau, Guiné-Bissau

Abstract

This research aims at the theme of inadequate basic sanitation and population health: case of Mindará neighborhood, city of Bissau, Guinea-Bissau - West Africa. This case study analyzed the relationship between the precarious health infrastructure and the health conditions, housing and quality of life of the population of Mindará neighborhood. The large market of Bandim, which stimulated the growth of the commercial area and the population increase, with 62,280 inhabitants, in 2015, is in the center of the neighborhood. The concentration of people as well as the dynamism of the market, due to the great increase of the products and the consumptions, has been generating an enormous amount of solid residues in the region. The data analyzed in this research were of primary origin, obtained through the application of 200 questionnaires to residents of Mindará neighborhood, for the formulation of the Disease Occurrence Index (DOI), Health Services Access Index (HSAI) and Basic Sanitation Index (BSI). These indexes showed insufficient sanitation infrastructure and the existence of several diseases in the population. The data do not conclude the direct relationship between the precariousness of the sanitation and the diseases, but they do not exclude the importance of the public sanitation policies to prevent diseases and to promote health. Thus, this research reveals the state of precariousness of basic sanitation infrastructure as well as public health, hoping that it may contribute to changes in this social framework.