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.
Highlights
Interventions to improve the situation of people living in low-income areas are gaining importance within the development arena in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
In the general Assembly of the human right to water and sanitation, the Assembly established the right of every human being to have access to sufficient water for personal and domestic uses, which must be safe, acceptable and affordable, and physically accessible i.e. the water source has to be within 1,000 metres of the home and collection time should not exceed 30 minutes [4]
In accessing women and children vulnerability to water supply (Table 3), 74.4% of the respondents reported that children and teenagers
Summary
Interventions to improve the situation of people living in low-income areas are gaining importance within the development arena in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Water and sanitation interventions in low-income areas can be placed within the context of tackling poverty, improving living conditions, contributing to economic growth and increasing participation. The United Nations has compared water consumption with its availability and has predicted that by the middle of this century between 2 billion and 7 billion people will be faced with water scarcity. Given this emerging reality, it is little wonder that water has been described as “the oil of the twenty first century”, a scarce commodity that will be source of conflict between peoples and nation [11]. It is not an understatement to say water is life, because it forms an appreciable proportion
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More From: International Journal of Sustainability Management and Information Technologies
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