Residents coping strategies with water scarcity in Makurdi Town, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the degree of water scarcity across Makurdi town as well as the strategies employed by residents to cope with the problem. Data was gathered via questionnaire administered to 228 respondents mainly household heads (both male and female) who were randomly selected. The results reveal that total household water demand in Makurdi town is estimated at 127,600 lpd more than the actual available supply of 40,520 lpd leading to shortfalls of about 87,080 lpd. This translates to about 68.2% of water demand not satisfied by supply. Findings also show that the major coping strategies employed by residents include: dredging dry hand-dug wells to get water (30.2%), storing water in big containers (26.3%) and walking long distances to get water (18.9%). The Fisher’s Exact (F exact) statistic was employed to test for association between some sociodemographic variables and the coping strategies adopted by residents. The results reveal no association between level of education and the strategies adopted by residents. The results however shows association between level of income, place of residence and the coping strategies adopted. The Likert scaling was used to investigate the causes of water scarcity in the study area. The failure of public water supply system is widely perceived as the major cause of water scarcity in Makurdi town. The paper recommends that residents should be encouraged to pool resources together to provide water supply projects for their common use.