Snail control in Africa: towards a community-based environmental control

Abstract

Disease control programme managers are becoming increasingly aware of the need to Promote community participation in all aspects of interventions. In the present paper, community participation in snail control is discussed from three standpoints: feasibility, effectiveness as well as long-term sustainability, based on field experience in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Morocco. The process leading to the involvement of the community appears to be a crucial factor in the success of any community based approach to control snails. In the successful experiences of environmental control of intermediate hosts, the community is mobilized at the design stage and not only at implementation and evaluation. The authors stress the relevance of ecological studies in providing information on environmental factors to be modified in order to make the habitat hostile to the snail hosts.