Impact of Community-Led Science Communication on Water Sanitation Practices Among Rural Communities in Taraba State, Nigeria

Abstract

Effective communication of scientific information remains central to improving public health outcomes in rural communities, yet many sanitation interventions in Nigeria continue to rely on top-down, one-way models of information transfer that do little to change deep-rooted behaviour. This study examined the effect of a community-led approach to communicating science on water sanitation awareness and practices among rural dwellers in Lau, Ardo-Kola, and Karim-Lamido Local Government Areas of Taraba State, Nigeria. Anchored on the dialogic and participatory models of science communication, the study adopted a quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 320 household heads, who responded to a structured, validated instrument titled the Sanitation Awareness and Practice Scale (SAPS) before and after an eight-week community-led science communication intervention comprising town-hall dialogues, trained community health champions, and local-language media messaging. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) to answer the research questions and a paired-samples t-test to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed a statistically significant increase in both sanitation awareness and sanitation practice scores following the intervention. The study concludes that community-led, dialogic science communication strategies are more effective than conventional awareness campaigns in changing rural sanitation behaviour because they position community members as active participants rather than passive recipients of scientific information. It is recommended that science educators, extension workers, and public health agencies in Taraba State institutionalise community-led communication structures including community health champions and town-hall dialogue sessions as a standard component of rural sanitation and science communication programmes.