PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH SHORTAGE OF WATER SUPPLY:
CASE STUDY OF OKE EFON COMMUNITY, ABEOKUTA LOCAL GOVT., OGUN STATE
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region. It already affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of every year. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water (Metwally, Ibrahim, Saad, & Abu El-Ela, 2006).
Africa faces huge challenges with multiple issues that adversely affect public health. One major challenge is the ability for both rural and urban Africans to access a clean water supply. According to the WHO (2006), only 59% of the world’s population had access to adequate sanitation systems, and efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal, which is aiming for 75% by the year 2015, will fall short by nearly half a billion people.
Water scarcity involves water stress, water shortage or deficits, and water crisis. While the concept of water stress is relatively new, it is the difficulty of obtaining sources of fresh water for use during a period of time and may result in further depletion and deterioration of available water resources. Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather patterns including droughts or floods, increased pollution, and increased human demand and overuse of water. A water crisis is a situation where the available potable, unpolluted water within a region is less than that region’s demand. Water scarcity is being driven by two converging phenomena: growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources.
It can be a result of two mechanisms: physical (absolute) water scarcity and economic water scarcity, where physical water scarcity is a result of inadequate natural water resources to supply a region’s demand, and economic water scarcity is a result of poor management of the sufficient available water resources. According to the United Nations Development Programme, the latter is found more often to be the cause of countries or regions experiencing water scarcity, as most countries or regions have enough water to meet household, industrial, agricultural, and environmental needs, but lack the means to provide it in an accessible manner.
The situation of access to clean water and sanitation in rural Africa is even more dismal than the previous statistics imply. The WHO (2006) stated that, in 2004, only 16% of people in sub-Saharan Africa had access to drinking water through a household connection (an indoor tap or a tap in the yard). Not only is there poor access to readily accessible drinking water, even when water is available in these small towns, there are risks of contamination due to several factors. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they are improperly maintained to due to limited financial resources. Water quality testing is not performed as often as is necessary, and lack of education among the people utilizing the water source leads them to believe that as long as they are getting water from a well, it is safe. Once a source of water has been provided, quantity of water is often given more attention than quality of water (Awuah, Nyarko, Owusu, & Osei-Bonsu, 2009).
There are limited sources of water available to provide clean drinking water to the entire population of Africa. Surface water sources are often highly polluted, and infrastructure to pipe water from fresh, clean sources to arid areas is too costly of an endeavor. Groundwater is the best resource to tap to provide clean water to the majority of areas in Africa, especially rural Africa, and groundwater has the benefit of being naturally protected from bacterial contamination and is a reliable source during droughts. However, the high costs associated with drilling for water, and the technical challenges in finding sources that are large enough to serve the population in need, present challenges that limit tapping the resource. Groundwater is not a fail-safe resource, either, when it comes to providing clean water. There may be contamination of the water with heavy metals, and bacteria may be introduced by leaking septic systems or contaminated wells. For these reasons, it is important that groundwater be monitored frequently, which is costly and requires technical abilities that may not be present in rural areas (Awuah, et al., 2009).
The reduction of water scarcity is a goal of many countries and governments. The UN recognizes the importance of reducing the number of people without sustainable access to clean water and sanitation. The Millennium Development Goals within the United Nations Millennium Declaration state that by 2015 they resolve to “halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water.”
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Water issues are global and at the same time inherently local. But in many cases, water resources are simply not managed effectively. And when watersheds straddle local, regional or national borders, leaders are often unaccountable for the way water is used and without incentive to make changes. Appropriate governance structures need to be put in place.
The implications of lack of clean water and access to adequate sanitation are widespread. Young children die from dehydration and malnutrition, results of suffering from diarrheal illnesses that could be prevented by clean water and good hygiene (Metwally, Ibrahim, Saad, & Abu El-Ela, 2006). Diseases such as cholera are spread rampantly during the wet season. Women and young girls, who are the major role-players in accessing and carrying water, are prevented from doing income-generating work or attending school, as the majority of their day is often spent walking miles for their daily water needs. They are also at an increased risk for violence since they travel such great distances from their villages on a daily basis, and are even at risk when they must go to the edge of the village to find a private place to relieve themselves.
Urban areas face a whole different host of challenges to providing clean water and sanitation. Rapid growth of urban areas, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, has lead to large volumes of water being extracted from existing sources. The influx of water, in addition to the influx in human waste, has outpaced the development of wastewater management systems, which has lead to pollution of natural water bodies, unintentional use of wastewater in irrigated agriculture, irregular water supply, and environmental concerns for aquatic life due to the high concentration of pollutants flowing into water bodies (Van Rooijen, Biggs, Smout, & Drechsel, 2009).
Overcrowding in urban slums makes it even more difficult to control sanitation issues and disease outbreaks associated with exposure to raw sewage. It has been reported that underprivileged urban populations pay exorbitant amounts of money for water, which is often not even suitable for consumption, while resources allocated to those living in the wealthy urban areas are heavily subsidized, meaning the wealthy pay less for cleaner water and better sanitation systems (Fotso, Ezeh, Madise, & Ciera, 2007).
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The study ascertains the problems associated with shortage of water supply. The primary objectives of the study include:
- To examine the effect of water shortage on the societies health.
- To determine the implication of water scarcity on children survival.
- To examine the effect of water shortage on women productivity.
- To explore the problems of water scarcity on the masses.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
- How does water shortage affect the societies health?
- What are the implications of water scarcity on children survival?
- What are the effects of water shortage on women productivity?
- What are the problems of water scarcity on the masses?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Hypothesis 1
H0: Water scarcity does not have any effect on the societies health.
H1: Water scarcity does have effect on the societies health.
Hypothesis 2
HO: Water scarcity does not have any effect on children survival.
H1: Water scarcity does have effect on children survival.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The findings from this study will help to create an alternative vision of water management based on ecological and democratic values, continue research to find solutions, and make the water movement structure sustainable.
The results of this study would hopefully be significant in the sense that it would enable the masses to better understand how water scarcity can adversely affect their life span and threaten their existence.
The findings from this study would help to further highlight the likely problems of water shortage plus how it affects children survival in the society.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study examines the problems associated with shortage of water supply. The scope of the study will be limited to the masses of Oke Efon Community, Abeokuta Local Govt., Ogun State.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Water Scarcity: Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region.
Survival: the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances.
Waterborne Disease: Waterborne diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms that most commonly are transmitted in contaminated fresh water. Infection commonly results during bathing, washing, drinking, in the preparation of food, or the consumption of food thus infected.
Water management: Water management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and optimum use of water resources under defined water polices and regulations. It includes: management of water treatment of drinking water, industrial water, sewage or wastewater. management of water resources. management of flood protection.
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