Accessibility to Safe Drinking Water in Selected Urban Communities in Southwest Nigeria

Water is an important part of the human life. Sustainable management of water is a major component of the Sustainable Delopment Goal ۶, United Nations. Many residents of the middle and low economic countries are not adequately supplied with this important commodity, however, but information is scanty about the specifics of the state of drinking water in many relatively small urban areas. This paper is focused on one of the countries within the sub-Saharan Africa such that the selected locations are four important states (Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti) in the southwest region of Nigeria. The objectives of the study are to evaluate the water supply for drinking purposes and assess the quality of samples from sources of household drinking water in the region. The results showed the comparable differences in water accessibility due to socio-economic structure of the selected areas. Also, there is an extensively poor household drinking water quality in the region, and a support from the public facilities is either inadequate or non-existent. The study recommends the improved and sustainable household water schemes across the region to meet a higher water productivity.

Keywords:

Drinking Water Resources , Water accessibility , Water Quality , Socio-economic status , Water productivity