Water sources and demand in South Western Nigeria: implications for water development planners and scientists

Abstract

In-depth interviews and personal observations were conducted with 5000 households each in four cities (Lagos, Ibadan, Ife and Ilesa) in South Western Nigeria concerning their household water supply system, water use practices and water demand. Owing to deficiencies in piped water availability, households invest in coping strategies in the form of alternative supplies and storage facilities to supplement piped water. This study revealed that about 30% of respondents have a private piped water connection. Even then, the tap water is available only three times a week on average. This has forced people in the area to invest heavily in the provision of storage tanks of various (up to 5000 litres) capacities for storing tap or rainwater wherever it is available and in the construction of both shallow and deep wells. The computed per capital per day water demand for the study area is about 46 litres. The “coping” strategies have important economic implications for the consumers and thus modelling of water demand should go beyond connection decision. The choice of any particular system for a given usage depends on the perceived attributes of the system. The implications of the results for water planners and water demand modellers are presented in this paper.