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Easy access to water causes baby boom

Better water supplies are linked to rise in hungry children in Ethiopia.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Helen Pearson on February 14, 2006 05:57 PM |

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Tracked on March 16, 2006 04:46 AM

Comments

Did the study rule out that the mere increased presence of women, who previously walked for hours to obtain water, might
have made sexual activity more likely? Was the study controlled for possible change in intercourse rates?

Posted by: Boris Zuchner | February 15, 2006 07:48 PM

!Sea surface at rise, but the water is disappear.
The disappearance of the water, must be notice

Posted by: weewqq | February 16, 2006 02:54 PM

Another case of unintended consequenses.
Now we have to put birth control in the water.
Just call it a "cleaning agent."

Posted by: ken sachs | February 16, 2006 05:42 PM

Oh that is why you have high birth rates here (UK). Absolute nonsense story. You have to know the meaning of what you trying to correlate.

Posted by: Bereket Zekarias | February 16, 2006 06:47 PM

Interesting the attitudes displayed both in the story and some of the comments on it. Has anyone asked the women how they feel about it?

Posted by: Tim Roberts | February 16, 2006 07:28 PM

The theory needs to be verified further. For me that by itself has little effect. Try to divide that community into two and engage one group with some sort of income generating schemes. The moment they become ocupied, the time spent together and hence the birth rate drops correspondingly. In the present study, easy access to water reduced the time spent to fetch water and increased the time the couple spent together. Even in towns, higher birth rate is related with those with ample idle time. So for me the root causes of higher birth rate is UNEMPLOYMENT and the time couples spent together. The group can make a simple control study in towns where there is already enough supply of water. It is possible to see higher birth rate in those people with no occupation (Unemployment). So birth control measures are not long lasting solutions. Think of some income generting schemes, which can make them busy and also support them selves in a susatinable way.

Posted by: Solomon | February 17, 2006 07:31 AM

Long time hadn't read such ?...? 'study' Is this a secret equivalent of 'poisson d'avril' among scientists (?)in the UK ..or are they racing for the Ignobel ? ...Appalling. Or is it a test from "Nature" on its readers ?!

Posted by: Aubert | February 17, 2006 04:10 PM

well, at best this "story" comments about donors smacks of donors misplaced priorities!.
The fact remains that provision of clean drinking water will remain on top of the global development agenda and priorties under the aegis of UN MDGs.

Posted by: krishna kumar | February 19, 2006 06:39 AM

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