WATER SUPPLY CHALLENGES IN LOW INCOME URBAN AREA: A STUDY OF AGBOWO COMMUNITY, IBADAN, NIGERIA

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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. Indeed, 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. The study was conducted in Agbowo Community of Ibadan, Nigeria. Agbowo is located on latitude 7° 26’ 39’’ N and longitude 3° 54’ 57’’ E. The study determined the gap between water supply and demand, physical and socio-economic variables that influence the supply situation, examined children and women vulnerability to water supply, investigated the effect of water supply on health outcome of children and economic productivity of women, and suggested options for improved water supply in the area. The study collected both qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data was collected using KOBO collect software – an androidbased application for collecting data. The mixed-methods approach utilized for this study was by employing the following qualitative and quantitative data collection methods: Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Self-administered questionnaires. The study selected 10% of the respondents from Sango area to test the validity and reliability of the survey instrument. Statistical computations were carried out using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. A confidence level of 95% was used and p-values ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The study was amazed at the level of optimism among many of its respondent despite the seriousness of the challenges they believed it can be sorted by government. The study recommended a massive remediation of the area needs to be carried out as most of the water were reported to be contaminated by sewage. Government also need to launch campaign to address the issue of waste disposal as well as provide means of cleaning drainages and water ways as most of these are washed as run-off into water sources making it unsuitable for drinking and other domestic purposes.