Assessment of Women and Children Vulnerability to Water Use in Low-Income Urban Area of Agbowo Community, Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

One of the challenges of urbanization is the increasing vulnerability to quality water supply among households. Low-income urban households lack access to portable water and therefore have to supplement their limited supply with water from sources such as streams, rivers and wells. Whereas when water is available, the quantity is decreasing, and the quality is also compromised mainly due to high population growth accompanied by inadequate infrastructures and poor waste disposal practices. With children and women being most vulnerable to water challenges, the study examined the impacts of water shortages on women and children, investigated the effect of water supply on health outcome of children and looked into effect of water supply challenges on economic productivity of women in low-income urban area of Agbowo Community. The study collected both qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data was collected using KOBO collect software – an android-based application for collecting data while qualitative data was collected by employing Key Informant Interviews (KII). Statistical computations were carried out using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. A confidence level of 99% was used and p-values ≤ 0.01 was considered statistically significant. The study noted that 74.4% of the respondents reported children and teenagers <18 years old are tasked with the responsibility of getting water for their household while 74% reported the occurrence of physical deformity as a result of the weight of the water. The study recommended that households should take the responsibility of getting water off children that are too tender and suggested special needs women such as pregnant women and nursing mothers should be put into consideration in development of water supply facilities.