Abstract
Water is a “sin qua non” for virtually all human activities; a pre-requisite for sustainable development as the consequences of safe water for health, productivity and quality of life as well as implications for economic development are enormous. This study investigated the sources of water supply and challenges faced by inhabitants in accessing these water sources in three districts each of urban and rural Zaria, Nigeria, and compared the results. Descriptive statistics and average mean score (AMS) technique was applied, and requisite data presented in frequency and percentage tables. The results revealed that the urban dwellers had to travel longer distances, than the rural dwellers, to source water and that the sources of water supply varied with the season. Whilst the urban areas accessed wells and water vendors in the wet and dry seasons, respectively, for non-domestic water supply and water vendors for domestic water supply; all year round, residents of the rural areas sourced non-domestic water supply from rainfall in the rainy season and streams in the dry season. Conversely, wells and water vendors were accessed in the wet and dry seasons, respectively, for rural domestic water supply. The corollary is that water vendors and wells are the predominant sources of water in Zaria, Nigeria. The methods of water purification employed by the communities sampled and their challenges to safe and adequate water supply are discussed; and plausible solutions are proffered. In addition, some recommendations to mitigate poor access to water are also volunteered.
Highlights
Zaria experiences two distinct seasons, which are caused by the movement of the Inter-Tropical Discontinuity (ITD) under the influence of two major air masses namely the tropical continental and tropical maritime
It indicates that the respondents in the urban areas travelled distances of between 1–5 km, or over, occasionally, to get water in the dry and wet seasons whereas those in the rural areas did not have to travel as far because of nearby natural sources, such as rivers and streams
The situation is similar across the rural areas, where longer distances were, explicably, travelled in the dry season, to access water
Summary
It is notable that only 27.4% of the total population of the country had access to improved water supply in 1974; with the rural population accounting for not more than 0.30% (Nura and Sabo, 2011). Ahile et al (2015) conducted a study on the coping strategies of residents with water scarcity in Makurdi town, Nigeria and their data revealed an estimated total household water demand of 127,600 litres per day relative to the available supply of 40,520 litres per day; with a shortfall of 87,080 litres per day translating to about 68.2% of the water demand remaining unsupplied. This study assesses the sources, spatial distribution and water availability as well as quantifies the demand, supply and consumption per household in the urban and rural areas of Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria
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