Journal of health research in community

Introduction and purpose: The need to access and produce clean water is currently felt more than ever by the communities due to the pollution of drinking water sources and the consumers’ growing concern and awareness about the absence of healthy drinking water. As a result, in the recent years, the use of water purification systems has been widely increased in the urban and rural regions of Iran. Regarding this, the aim of the present study was to investigate the causes of the tendency to use home desalination systems in the households of Bandar Lengeh, Hormozgan, Iran. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 140 households in the fall of 2014. The study population was selected through simple random sampling technique. The data were collected using a questionnaire enquiring the cause of using home desalination systems among the people living in Bandar Lengeh. Data analysis was performed in SPSS, version 24 using Chi-square test. Results: According to the results of the present study, none of the investigated households directly used the water distributed in the city for drinking. Only 12.9% of the households used this water for cooking. Therefore, the water distributed in the urban network was mostly used for irrigation as well as washing dishes and clothes. Furthermore, the most frequently reported reasons for the non-use of the water were discoloration of tea and slowing down the cooking of food. Conclusion: As the findings of the present study indicated, it is not essential to use the domestic purification systems. Accordingly, the tendency to use these systems are mainly raised by incorrect beliefs about this issue. This highlights the necessity of implementing educational programs targeting toward the improvement of the households’ awareness regarding the health issues.