The study of human behavior and schistosomiasis transmission in an irrigated area in Morocco

This paper presents a research strategy for studying water contact, water use and schistosomiasis transmission in an irrigated area of Morocco. This setting, with many scattered water contact sites, many activities carried out at these sites, and the small number of people involved, was not appropriate for a conventional water contact study based on the observation of water contact sites, such as had been carried out in the Nile delta. The Moroccan study utilizes three related concepts: the household, time geography, and the gendered use of space. It seeks to understand processes and interrelationships underlying the daily mobility pattern of individual households, and seen as part of a larger system of organization and structure in time and space. The preliminary results of the study indicated the complexity and dynamism of water use and water contact, which need to be considered in planning disease control strategies especially in changing settings, such as those associated with environmental interventions in the study area.