Accessing safe drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa: Issues and challenges in South–West Nigeria

Abstract

Termination of the Millennium Development Goals gave birth to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with which Target 6 is to provide unhindered access to safe and economical drinking water and sanitation for all. The survey in this research adopted stratified sampling technique that captured 400 households, in which 700 well-structured questionnaire consisting of open and closed-ended questions were distributed. The questions were in line with Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WaSH) recommendations on drinking water and sanitation for household surveys. It examined the access to safe water regarding accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability in Ado-Odo Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. Personal interviews were conducted to capture the emotional discretion of respondents towards the subject matter. Cross-tabulation and Multinomial logit model were used to analyze the relationship of the variables on water access. The results obtained showed that the water access within the study area is mostly limited to the private sources because of the level of quality and accessibility. The study reveals that the fate placed on government water facilities has dwindled drastically. Furthermore, the study highlighted the need to revisit government policies, with the inclusion of subsidy, cost recovery and rainwater harvesting as effective tools in improving and encouraging equity in water access.