In the early 20 th -century public water supply schemes started gradually in some strategic urban towns in Nigeria such as Kano, Lagos, Abeokuta, Calabar and Enugu with minimal administrative challenges. These schemes were sustained with the income from water sales as the government did not provide any subventions until the regionalization of Nigeria which witnessed a slow response to the management of water supply in these urban towns.
As population surged in the cities, the water demand spiked as well but with a limited corresponding increase in capacity to satisfy the demand. This led to a myriad of impediments to water supply in Nigeria ranging from poor management of water supply facilities, inadequate financing and use of funds, inadequate data regarding the operation and maintenance, flawed system design, inadequate policies, overlapping responsibilities and legal frameworks, undue political interference.
Other factors include the absence of distinct institutional objectives and outright corruption leading to the incapacitation of water supply agencies in Nigeria. Since the machinery to reform the sector has been agreed upon at the federal level, it is expected to be rolled out in all the states of Nigeria. These include sector policies and strategies, a review of legislation to conform with intentions regarding the roles of government and the private sector, and separation of policy formulation and regulation from service delivery.
Most states in Nigeria may not want to invest this huge amount on water, hence, residents and government alike resort to private sources of water supply. Ele 24 highlighted some of the challenges of potable water supply in Nigeria since and its consequences on economic development. They include surges in industrial and urban pollution, infrastructure decay, inadequate power supply, under-funding and demographic changes as some of the factors militating against the provision of potable water in Nigeria.
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in laid emphasis on access to potable water as a substantial component to satisfactory right to an adequate standard of living. Presumably, the fundamental human rights to water enable everybody to enjoy access to acceptable, safe, enough, affordable and physically accessible potable water for domestic and industrial purposes.
The importance of water, sanitation and hygiene for health and development has been reflected in the outcomes of a series of international policy forums such as the recent adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals that included water infrastructure to access safe drinking water.
Furthermore, the United Nations and World Health Organization posit that the minimum required amount of water per person per day is fifty to hundred L litres. Cristina 25 contended that this requirement must be defined in clear terms since the basic need for potable water includes water used for personal hygiene that is often determined by availability and accessibility. The WHO adopts specific metrics to estimate water needs based on specific needs that are supposed to be met, such matrices include; the basic access that allows for hand washing, consumption and basic hygiene, but does not promise water for bathing and laundry.
These limitations have significant impacts on the health of humans. Also, the transitional access allows individuals to access up to 50 litres of water daily at less than metres or 5minutes from the source to destination. This access could cater for laundry and bathing as well as basic access requirements for water.
In this scenario, the impact on health is minimal as optimal access indicates the consumption of litres per person per day on average which is supplied continuously through multiple taps that meet all hygiene and consumption for persons who provide water for themselves and own boreholes.
This amount is based on the presumption that each person uses between 80 and gallons of water per day. Also, inadequate financial resources, climate variability and climate change are other impediments to water supply in Nigeria. Furthermore, Chukwu 29 in another related study argued that poor state of infrastructure, corruption, and low rate of costs recovery hinder water supply and management in Nigeria.
The study adopted a cross-sectional survey with a multistage sampling method using both primary and secondary data. The study relied more on the primary data as it involved the identification of primary sampling units seventeen political wards and subsequent selection of secondary sampling units. The study applied stratified random sampling technique to identify heads of households that would be part of the study which determined the sample size as well as the number of questionnaires administered.
Data were randomly collected from identified, listed heads of households with the use of a close and open-ended questionnaire. Handheld Global positioning system GPS was used to identify and geolocate private borehole points within the study area. Data were analyzed using the descriptive method of data analysis and information presented in charts and tables. Findings from the study indicate that the sources of water supply prevalent in the study area is the private source which involves the use of private boreholes for family use and commercial purposes.
Commercial borehole operators sell water at different prices to individuals depending on the container used, water vendors carry water in carts and distribute same to homes and sell at prices that would enable them to maximize profit. The study further reveals that there are no regulations on what is being supplied to individuals regarding price and quality. Since the government has failed in discharging its role of providing water to the citizens, it has also become docile on the quality and price of water supplied to the people.
Every government must ensure the effective regulation of every sector especially water supply and those related to the safety and health of the citizenry. Implicitly, it creates a situation whereby the poor and disadvantaged in the study area have unequal access to the essentials of life such as safe drinking water since they were unable to afford the outrageous cost charged by water vendors especially those that are presumed to be hygienically packaged Figure 2.
Figure 2 Sources of water study in the study area. Source: Field Survey, Quantity of water consumed concerning the water requirement of residents in the study area.
According to the United Nations and World Health Organizations, every individual requires a minimum of litres of water a day for optimal access per household.
However, the study revealed that households that operate private borehole consume over l in a day, whereas households that do no operate private boreholes consume at least l in a day. The consumption rates for the two groups studied indicates that there is under consumption and limited access to water in the study area due to the high cost from borehole operators and water vendors.
This follows the basic economic principle of demand and supply such that when the price is high, demand is low, and supply is reduced. However, most people believe that water is a social good that should attract no price for consumption, at the same time many find it difficult to spend their money buying water, even those that operate private boreholes tries to minimize operational cost by reducing the amount of water being pumped when there is a power outage.
Many households also try to avoid the use of power generators to pump water because of fuel and maintenance cost. The study revealed that borehole owners spend an average of NGN per month for water while non-borehole owners spend an average of NGN per month.
The study further revealed that households with private boreholes spend more on the water than households without boreholes. Most borehole owners incur extra cost on maintenance with high propensity to use more water because water lines are connected into every functional water facility including outside tap that may be used for washing of cars. Also, there are incidences of leakages that increase the volume of water used.
All of these automatically increases the total amount spent on water. Kim 27 asserts that an average household of 4 persons pays USD70 per month on the assumption that an individual use between L of water per day which is about NGN24, equivalent in Nigeria. The implication is that households in the study area do not spend more than their counterparts in other countries especially, in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Table 2 Average monthly spend by borehole operators Source: Field Survey, Table 3 Average monthly spend by non-borehole owners Source: Field Survey, Several factors that have inherently affected the supply and distribution of public water over the years in the study area were identified.
They include government insensitivity to the needs of the governed, corruption, and poor planning strategies, tax evasion, poor maintenance culture of existing water facilities and obsolete water facilities.
It is important to assert that good governance requires selflessness and empathy towards the governed since these attributes engender goodwill without a feeling that the people are being done any favour by those in government.
From Table 4 , government insensitivity was the highest response received as it reflects how the governed are being treated with disdain. It is true that when people empathize with anyone, they tend to go the extra mile to ensure that such persons effectively manage the challenges that may be experienced.
Corruption was another impediment to the public water supply. Based on the findings of this study, the government has over the years awarded contracts to rehabilitate water infrastructure in some parts of the site yet, no job was done, and nobody is questioned or held to account for such failure and brazen embezzlement.
This is the height of corruption experienced where funds meant for the good of all is being embezzled by a single individual and or group of individuals. Poor planning was another palpable impediment identified in the study area since proper planning is pivotal to success and its absence often results in a colossal loss in both human and material resources on the side of the government and the governed. Lack of implementable blueprint for water distribution from the onset was also one of the identified impediments towards achieving effective supply and distribution.
When there is a blueprint it often considers future growth and possible projections are made to handle such growth. Since there was no operational blueprint, the municipality is overwhelmed by the increasing population and physical development in the area without commensurate provision of potable water to the citizenry.
The study identified some of the social and economic effects of private sector provision of water supply. Some of these effects identified include too much spending on the water by individuals as this expenditure depletes the disposable income and purchasing power of the members of households. On the flip side, there is also the creation of sources of livelihoods for the water vendors and borehole operators alike. Other economic effects include loss of revenue by the government in the form of tax invasion while residents become vulnerable to any water-related disease.
The issue of what is spent is relative when compared to what is spent on water tariff in other countries. However, given the disheartening status of poverty among income groups in addition to other competing needs for the available financial resources such as health, education, food, shelter it is imperative to assert that the average Nigerian household spends so much to access potable water. Most households in the study area with a monthly income of N 20, spend about N 2, monthly on getting access to potable water.
On the contrary, those involved in water vending have successfully created for themselves sources of livelihood, thereby reducing the rate of unemployment. Another important implication is the vulnerability to water-related diseases because the sources of water may not be good enough for consumption since the activities of private water suppliers and the quality of water they supply is not verified by any known agency of government. Indications from the study identified severable impediments such as government insensitivity, corruption and lack of maintenance of broken-down water facilities that distorts the supply and distributions of public water supply.
The key economic benefit of private provision of water includes the creation of jobs for water vendors and borehole operators which has reduced the level of unemployment. Based on the findings of the research, some of the recommendations include; existing developments that require private boreholes should obtain approval from the relevant agencies and the new developments should indicate positions of borehole points and soak away pits building plans seeking for approval at the local government offices and Ministry of Urban and Physical Development to ensure that adequate setbacks are maintained.
Finally, the database of existing boreholes and their location should be created and properly managed. This, by extension, has created a divide between the poor majority of who live in rural areas and those who can comfortably afford to pay for water services.
Rural and urban-poor areas lag behind in water development. The lack of consistent monitoring of water supply services especially in rural areas by the sector management further complicates this case.
An example is the problem of poor management of rural water supplies which remains largely unchecked. There is therefore an urgent need to establish a monitoring strategy which would help the sector to rightly diagnose the challenges it faces and provide apt solutions. The sector also lacks minimum technical standards for water facilities to be implemented in the country. This has occasionally resulted in developing facilities that are costly for water supply operators to run. In rural areas where most management committees are ill equipped with technical and managerial skills, such projects easily fail.
Embracing research creates opportunity for creative ideas for sustainable interventions. Further, social problems have also led to failure of projects through conflicts and lack of social acceptance of interventions. The success of CPC-implemented projects, however, serves as a pointer to the importance of involving beneficiary communities in overcoming, to a good degree, technical and social challenges in water development.
In other developing countries, increasing water access to the poor is a prominent challenge faced by the water sector management [50] , just as the case is shown for Kenya from this study. Social challenges like conflicts and low stakeholder involvement are similar across the developing world, which can be seen in Figure 5 that such challenges have less complex evolvement scenarios.
On the other hand, the technical and financial challenges are more dependent on the interplay of many parameters in a given environmental setting including legislation and political set up. Whereas IWRM is concerned with structure of approach to management of water resources, AM is designed to deal with uncertainties emanating from the complex nature of issues faced in resource management [51].
With the policies supporting IWRM in place, it is time for the Kenya water sector management to adopt AM to refine its management decisions towards a desired outcome. In conclusion, the challenges facing the Kenya water sector management in improving water supply coverage are diverse ranging from technical, financial to social in nature.
There sector management however, has opportunity for improvement through elaborate monitoring of water services and water resources, adoption of minimum technical standards for water supply facilities that ensures sustainability, and involving beneficiary communities in all stages of water supply development.
Finally, adopting AM may solve the last puzzle by refining solutions to the raft of issues facing the sector management. Tampere University Press, Tampere. Working Paper No. Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Nairobi. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Nairobi. International Journal of Science and Research, 3, Water Resources Management Authority, Nairobi. Water Services Regulatory Board, Nairobi. UNEP, Nairobi. Kenya Water Towers Agency, Nairobi. Ministry of Lands, Nairobi. International Water Management Institute, Colombo.
Water and Sanitation Program. World Bank, Washington DC. Water Resources Research, 52, Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Kenya. Welthungerhilfe, Berlin. Development in Practice, 24, Institute of Economic Affairs, Nairobi.
Water Resources Management, 30, Republic of Kenya, Nairobi. World Bank, Washington D. Evidence from Kenya. World Development, 40, Santa Clara Journal of International Law, 7, Habitat International, 23, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens. Ecology and Society, 13, Home Journals Article. DOI: Abstract Water is an important component in national development. Share and Cite:.
Chepyegon, C. Journal of Water Resource and Protection , 10 , In the government of Kenya rolled out The Kenya Vision which is an ambitious development plan that aims to transform the country into a middle Table 1. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. References [ 1 ] Nyanchaga, E. Journals Menu. Contact us. All Rights Reserved. Nyanchaga, E.
Water Act Government Printer. Kibuika, F. Pavelic, P. Kimani, A. Richards, T. Katui-Katua, M. Cook, J. Rampa, F. Kwena, R. Behrens-Shah, P. Harvey, P. Spaling, H. Acheampong, E. Nkonya, E. Marks, S. Ogendi, G. It requires the progress of the three dimensions of the sustainable development social, economic and environmental [ 7 ].
Thus, the vision of SDGs goal 6 for water requires management of the available water and related resources in an integrated, inclusive and participatory approach. Huge investment is highly needed for infrastructure, treatment plant systems and water recycling [ 29 ].
A WSS may face a number of challenges associated with many factors in provision of quality, efficient, reliable, resilient and sustainable water supply for the present and future generations. Rural areas are facing more financial and technical difficulties than urban areas. According to da Silva et al. Especially in rural areas with arid environment and great hydrologic variability, reliable and dependable WSS requires energy intensive infrastructure.
A study made by Chung et al. Achieving the SDG requires huge capital investment and good governance , which is lacking in developing countries. Huge investment is highly needed for infrastructure, treatment plant systems and water recycling [ 28 ]. The sustainable development of water sector is affected by the sustainable development of the other sectors. Unsustainable developmental activities are greatly threatening the quantity and quality of renewable freshwater resources.
Various driving forces are threatening the sustainability of WSS such as population increase at alarming rate, high rate of urbanization, significant land cover and climate change, the high demand for new energy supplies and poor governance. These driving factors are causing an increasingly frequent water shortage, floods and droughts, deleterious runoff, coastal hypoxia and depleted aquifers [ 28 ]. The other challenge of sustainable water supply is the lack of appropriate policies and programs that consider rural diversity.
Small rural communities are the most vulnerable to water contamination. Furthermore, they struggle to secure the necessary funds for infrastructure necessary to improve water treatment and delivery systems, and thus fail to meet drinking water quality regulations. Community management is the tendency to provide water to rural areas worldwide. Despite the diversity of rural communities and their water supplies, policies tend to be uniform.
A quantitative and qualitative study made in the Colombian Andes on four rural water supplies by considering aspects of infrastructure, training of human resources, revenue collection, water quality and post-construction support [ 31 ]. The study concluded that there is a need to design policies and programs that consider rural diversity to facilitate the sustainable water supply services. According to Kot et al. In urban areas, the infrequent and insufficient application of adaptive capacity indicators in urban sustainable water supply systems has led to the challenge of dynamic and uncertain urban water supply systems.
This condition is threatening the sustainability of urban water supply systems and raises concerns about the progress of urban water systems for variation and change [ 33 ]. As suggested by Spiller [ 33 ], future research should focus on developing methods and indicators that can define, evaluate and quantify adaptive capacity indicators under the three dimensions of sustainable development economic, environmental and technical.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to move toward the use of adaptive capacity indicators. Moreover, there is an urgent need to move toward sustainable and resilient smart water grids in urban areas. Urban water supply systems are facing challenges of sustainability and resiliency, including water leaks, over-use, quality issues and response to drought and natural disasters [ 34 ].
Information and communications technology could help address these challenges through the development of smart water grids that network and automate monitoring and control devices [ 34 ]. While impressive progress has been made on technological elements information and communication , the application of a smart water grid has received scant attention, especially in developing countries.
In fast-growing urban regions, water demand and supply modeling is extremely important. An accurate prediction of water demand plays a crucial role for water service providers in the planning, design and water utility asset management of drinking WSS.
However, accurate prediction is always challenging due to the fact that predicting models require a simultaneous consideration of a number of factors affecting water demand and supply pattern.
Some of the factors include climate changes, economic development, population growth, migration and consumer behavioral patterns [ 35 ]. There are a number of factors challenging WSS. According to Berg and Danilenko [ 38 ], WSS has faced a number of global challenges in the twenty-first century.
The major challenges are population growth, uncertain climate changes, socio-environmental issues, limited water resources, economic crises and continuous aging process. There are a number of problems associated with the continuous aging process, including low pressure, water loss and water quality deterioration [ 36 ]. The major challenges in the provision of safe water and sanitation on a global basis are [ 37 ]: 1 water contamination within distribution systems; 2 increasing water scarcity and shortages; 3 implementing innovative and low-cost sanitation systems; 4 providing sustainable water supply systems and sanitation for megacities; 5 reducing the disparities in access to water and sanitation and 6 developing financially feasible water and sanitation services.
Increasing urban water self-sufficiency: The main drivers for increased self-sufficiency were identified to be direct and indirect lack of water, constrained infrastructure, high-quality water demands and commercial and institutional pressures. Public water service providers should plan to achieve a high level of reliable, stable and dependable water supply, which can be achieved by combining alternative water supply systems with the conventional ones.
A case study made by Rygaard et al. The study concluded that despite the challenges, urban water self-sufficiency concepts in combination with conventional water resources are already helping to reach the goal of urban WSS.
Infrastructure development: Water services are in crisis or approaching crisis conditions due to the neglect of infrastructure, particularly underground water mains and sewers, largely because of political unwillingness to allow charges to be set high enough to achieve sustainable cost recovery. This is true in both developed and developing countries [ 43 ].
In developed countries, the solutions are relatively affordable; what is needed is the political commitment to take action. In developing countries, the situation is more serious due to a combination of neglect and rapidly growing urban populations. Without doubt, infrastructure is essential for sustainable water development. But infrastructure alone will not contribute to the improvement of the quality of life unless it is part of an overall framework: development, economic growth, social equity and environmental protection.
But infrastructure development takes more time beyond the life of most governments. The thinking of water service providers has to be based on long-term horizons. In order to improve the accountability and social welfare of relatively low-income households, there is a need for more comprehensive frameworks institutional, legal, regulatory, policy and management than the existing ones at present [ 45 ]. This would help the government agencies to come out with an improved water tariff policy that will cover cost of investment and maintenance.
Urban water pricing cost recovery, affordability and water conservation : Policymakers increasingly consider pricing as an important tool for cost recovery, affordability and water conservation to address water scarcity issues. However, implementing tariff reforms is often difficult in practice due to political factors and the absence of governance structures that can result in quality service provision.
Additionally, institutional replication of successful water pricing policies has been difficult due to incomplete information and the contextual uniqueness of local institutions, politics and social relations.
Water service provision thinking has to be based on long-term horizons. Infrastructure development takes time beyond the life of most governments. In those countries without such political continuity, there is a need for all political factions to agree on goals, policies and plans. It is unlikely that water can ever be separated from politics, but city political consensus must be attempted [ 53 ].
Climate change : Climate change is affecting the frequency of extreme weather events and hence increasing the uncertainty about water availability and reliability [ 50 ]. A properly planned, developed and managed infrastructure and related institutional capacities are required in order to buffer seasonal climatic variations and address water demand issues.
More emphasis should be given to mountain-specific issues. Major priority areas include water governance for transboundary basins, cross-border information systems, establishing a knowledge base for mountain regions and sharing benefit between mountain and downstream communities [ 42 ]. Knowledge gaps: With respect to present and future, hydrology poses a serious constraint for infrastructure development.
Changing hydrology will pose special challenges to the design, planning and management of infrastructure [ 42 ]. Land use influences raw surface water quality and treatment costs for drinking water supply [ 51 ]. Anthropogenic disturbances to the environment can compromise valuable ecosystem services, including the provision of potable water. These disturbances decrease water quality, potentially increasing treatment costs for producing drinking water. Efficiency and reliability of a water supply system: Water inflow is among primary determinants of the successful functioning of the entire water supply system since it influences water storage.
Developing an approach to assess the resilience of WSS under limited rainfall provides useful insights into effective system management [ 26 ]. It can also help to understand and identify the sensitivity of the WSS to a changing rainfall amount and distribution pattern.
In this regard, the water service providers are well aware of the stability of WSS and know when the system experience a pressure or disruptive influences. Challenges for water supply and Governance: Cities struggling to keep pace with population and demographic changes are not unique. Their main challenges related to topography, old infrastructure the nineteenth century , population growth and development needs, water charges, climate change and water supply history.
Water is most fundamental in shaping the land and regulating the climate. It is one of the most important resources that profoundly influence life. Water quality is the most fundamental controlling factor when it comes to health and the state of diseases in both humans and animals. As a principle, drinking water is supposed to be free from harmful pathogens and toxic chemicals [ 3 ].
Contamination of freshwater especially groundwater sources is one of the main challenges currently faced by the South Africans, more especially in communities who depend almost exclusively on groundwater [ 52 ].
Groundwater is used for domestic, industrial and agricultural water supply in all four corners of the world. Therefore, the presence of contaminants in natural freshwater continues to be one of the most important environmental issues in many areas of the world, more especially in developing countries [ 53 ]. Once the groundwater is contaminated, its quality cannot be restored back easily, the best way is to protect it. The concept and theory of water quality is very broad since it is influenced by many factors.
Water quality is based on the intended uses of water for different purposes, that is, different water uses require different criteria to be satisfied.
In water quality analysis, all of the accepted and unaccepted values must be clearly defined for each quality variable. If the quality variables meet the pre-established standards for a given use is considered safe for that use. When water fails to meet these standards, it must be treated if possible before use.
Physical quality parameters are related to total solids content, which is composed of floating matter, settleable matter, colloidal matter and matter in solution.
The following physical parameters are determined in water [ 12 ]:. Color : caused by dissolved organic materials from decaying vegetation or landfill leachate. Taste and odor : can be caused by foreign compounds such as organic compounds, inorganic salts or dissolved gases.
Temperatures : the most desirable drinking water is consistently cool and does not have temperature fluctuation of more than a few degrees. Groundwater generally meets these criteria. Turbidity : refers to the presence of suspended solid materials in water such as clay, silt, organic material, plankton, and so on. The chemical constituents have more health concerns for drinking water than for the physical constituents. The objectionability of most of the physical parameters are based on esthetic value than health effects.
But the main objectionability of some of the chemical constituents is based on esthetic as well as concerns for adverse health effects. Some of the chemical constituents have an ability to cause health problems after prolonged period of time [ 54 ]. That means the chemical constituents have a cumulative effect on humans. The chemical quality parameters of water include alkalinity, biological oxygen demand BOD , chemical oxygen demand COD , dissolved gases, nitrogen compounds, pH, phosphorus and solids organic.
Sometimes, chemical characteristics are evidenced by their observed reactions such as in laundering, redox reactions, and so on [ 12 , 54 ].
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