An Analysis of Access to Improved Drinking Water and Sanitation and Distance to the Water Source in a Newly Independent Country, Timor-Leste: Assessing Geographical and Socioeconomic Disparities

Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to thank God for giving me good health and patience to complete this work. I would foremost like to thank my family and close friends who have always given me unlimited support and encouraged me through this effort. This thesis is also dedicated to my deceased mother who has given me her protection from heaven. Special acknowledgment is also dedicated to my government of Timor-Leste, the Conoco Phillips Oil Company, the US government (State Department) through the Fulbright Program for providing me this prestigious award and opportunity to pursue another graduate degree; the entire faculty staff from School of Public Health and Geoscience Department of Georgia State University, especially my thesis committee chair Dr Christine Elizabeth Stauber for taking much time to work with me on completing my thesis, and my thesis committee member Dr Matt Hayat for providing me his valuable guidance and support in statistical methods. iv List of tables Page Table 1: Improved and unimproved drinking water sources and sanitation facility categories as defined by the JMP Table 3: Weighted number of observations for outcome variables in the study ……….…………………………………………………………………………. 26 Table 4: Independent variables used in the study and their weighted distribution in terms of access to source of drinking water, type of sanitation and distance to water source in Timor-Leste Table 5: Weighted bivariate logistic regression analysis of the associations between independent variables and access to improved drinking water and sanitation and distance to water source with 30 minutes or less at the household level in Timor-Leste Table 6: Weighted bivariate logistic regression analysis of the associations between independent variables and access to improved drinking water and sanitation and distance to water source with 30 minutes or less at the individual level in Timor-Leste .. Adjusted odds ratio from weighted multivariate logistic regression of the predictors (residence, municipalities, wealth index) of access to improved drinking water, improved sanitation and travel times of 30 minutes or less at the household level in Timor-Leste ………….. Adjusted odds ratio from weighted multivariate logistic regression of the predictors (residence, region, wealth index) of access to improved drinking water, improved sanitation and travel times of 30 minutes or less at the household level in Timor-Leste Table 8: Adjusted odds ratio from weighted multivariate logistic regression of the predictors of access to improved drinking water, improved sanitation and travel times of 30 minutes or …