ABSTRACT
Water is one of the basic human need and imperative for sustaining quality of life on earth. However, its unbalance and unmanaged used make it scarce. This study analyzes the Residential water Demand and Supply in Okigwe town, Imo State. Focuses on the analysis of the sources of water resource in Okigwe, assessing factors affecting water demand and supply and their relationship. The methodology involve the use of questionnaires and interview method to gather necessary information from the state water Board and result gathered from the study area. The study was carried out through the use of structured questionnaire which was administered. Two hundred and fifty (250) questionnaires were filled correctly. On the part of water Board questionnaire were correctly filled and returned. Random sampling was employed. The questionnaires were used to solicit information from a sample of respondents. The analytic techniques involve both the descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency distribution, sample percentage and correlation analysis. Therefore, it was deduced from the analysis that consumption and supply are 124.0 liters and 190.2 liters respectively per person per day. The conclusion from the result of correlation coefficient (1.9996) that there exists very high positive linear relationship between the household water demand and water supplied by the Imo State Water Board. The women and children are particularly vulnerable when water is short supply. Bursting of pipe, poor management, topography of an area, water wastage coupled with bias in water supply have been some of the factors influencing water supply. The study recommends that there should be concerted effort by both water users 9demand) and supplier to control water wastage so as to achieve the goal.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
• BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Water is essential to life and its supply, consumption and spatial distribution are closely associated with economic growth and the development of society. Apart from air, water is indispensable to life it is a foundation for human prosperity because adequate and high quality water supplies provide a basis for the growth and development of human social, economic and culture of people (Ward, 1975, Young, 2006). The importance of water to man cannot be overemphasized, it holds the most important benefit to man‟s sustenance beside shelter, food and clothing (Ajadi, 1996) According to Amin and Mahmud, (2011) it is recognized all over the world that water is a vital resource to human existence and that is a major factor in commanding the progress of civilization.
Water is essential in sustaining quality of life on earth, the sustainability of socially sensitive goods such as water depends on effective and efficient use of available water resources. Amin and Mahmud, (2011) also reported that the extensive use of water has increased globally and the efficacy of supply side measure is questionable owing to drastic increase in population, technological advancement and economic growth; the demand for water supplies is continuously increasing, numerous researchers have emphasized on water demand management rather than the supply side management. The water demand study in relation to water supply enables us to estimate how much the increase in demand for water supplies.
Water demand is the quantity that the treatment plant produce in order to meet all water needs in the community. Water demand includes water delivered to the system to meet the need of consumers, water supply for fire fighting and system flushing. On the other hand water supply refers to system for the collection, transmission, treatment, storage and distribution of water Admassu M. (1996).
The term “residential water demand” according to Amin (2007), is usually taken to mean the amount of water required for various domestic uses. Residential water use varies according to the living standards of the consumers in urban and rural areas. The use of water for domestic purpose may be subsidized in drinking, food preparation and cooking washing cloths and utensils, house cleaning and polishing vegetable gardening, livestock watering and other uses.
According to Adedayo and Ifabiyi (1999), access to safe and adequate potable water supply is a basic human right. They reported that residential water supply and demand is not uniform in different parts of Okigwe town and varies significantly base on locations, climate change, house characteristics and socio-economic variables. Indeed, residential water demand is often found to be a positive function of the number of individuals in the family, the size of the house, the nature of water
– using appliances and household income. Also they reported that residential water demand is increasing rapidly while the options for new development of water resources are limited in Okigwe municipal, the infrastructure is in poor shape, underfunding by the government and low revenue collection over the decades has weakened the capacity of government to find, build and maintain infrastructure. According to WHO/UNICEF (2000) 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supply. In the same vein, the data released by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics in 2006 confirmed that only 51.4% of Nigerian have access to safe water with only 43.4% having access to all year round supply.
According to Fabiyi and Ahmed (2011), one of the most important problems of urbanization across the world is that of water supply, because of its role in natural health and economic development. They reported that an important aspect of urban water supply is the understanding of household water demand at the level of household is complex phenomenon which varies on the basis of socio-economic factors.
The study of water supply and demand in Nigeria becomes imperative in various respects. According to Fabiyi and Ahmed (2011), it was confirmed that in 1990, 71.1 million Nigerians lived in urban areas, in 1995 it increased to 96.1 million, by 2003 this percentage had gone to 136 million people, indicating a serious stress in water supply in Nigerian cities. Also, a report by Central Bank of Nigeria CBN (2004) showed that 41% and 51% of Nigerians population are children and female respectively suggesting that relatively high percentage of Nigerians are vulnerable to water borne diseases. According to Adedayo and Ifabiyi (1999) Okigwe town is a typical traditional city with mixtures of traditional rural and industrial function where water supply is erratic, inefficient, rotational and unreliable, they reported that four additional public agencies are also into water supply in the state apart from Agba and Asa Dam. UNICEF having 73 boreholes in the area, EUMBP with 22 boreholes, KWAADP with 40 boreholes and DFFRI with about 404 shallow and deep wells in the traditional part of the city.
In addition, they reported that pipe borne water runs in few days of the week and many of the inhabitants have to walk great distances before they get to the nearest water points in Okigwe. According to Oyebode (1991), 75% of the respondents walked 400 – 800 meters from their residence to the nearest water points. Analysis of numbers of days with running taps revealed that 60.9% of the respondents have water twice a week, 11% three times a week, while only 0.9% have water on daily basis. As reported by Adedayo and Ifabiyi (1991), analysis of the amount of water supplied and amount demanded suggested that Okigwe experienced water deficit as much as over 1,000,000 liters per capital day per annum. According to Sule (2000) about half of the population of the Okigwe town lack access to safe and portable water supply. On the contrary, water supply by delivery agent and its contamination level due to poor sanitation is always disastrous in terms of ill health, thereby undermining their productive time which in the long run could lead to reduction in income and increase in disease out break and increase in poverty.
According to Annad (2007), competition for water has resulted in the collapse of water base ecological systems hence decline river flows and large scale ground water depletion. This is leading to an increased potential for conflict within and between countries with the rural populations being the most affected. Also reported that even though the water crisis is observed as a general problem for the rural population, women bare the greatest burden because of their social gendered roles, which involve looking for and collecting water for households. Barkingham (2000), equally affirmed that water demand and allocation in the household has got a direct link with accessibility of the
water supply sources. This is determined by the distance travelled to collect water. According to the WHO (2003) standards areas with access to water of more than 1000m/more than 30min uses of the total collection time pose a great threat to human health (WHO, 2003) also reported that in Amona and Rakai district of Uganda, most of the people still do not have easy access to water. This has got a negative impact on the status of women and children who are responsible of collecting water. This is because they always have to travel a distance of more than 1km to collect water and to carry it on their heads.
The situation in some parts of the study area is also pathetic that both old and young men and women spend most of their time and resources in search for water. The extent to which this shortage undermine the productive time and income generating efforts of people in Okigwe town demands for a scientific study, therefore this study seeks to analyze the demand and supply of residential water in Okigwe town, Imo State.
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