Evaluation of water supply system Case study in Naka ... - ENGEES

Evaluation of water supply system – Case study in Naka, Nigeria1 Introduction1.1 BackgroundThe state of water supply and sanitation access worldwide is alarming: in 2000, 1.1billion people lacked access to improved water supply, and 2.4 billion to adequatesanitation, more located in rural than urban areas (WHO/UNICEF, 2000). Consideringthe population growth, these figures are going to increase unless appropriate andsound measures are taken to reverse this trend. Countries have a huge challenge toface in order to achieve Target 10 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG),which is to “halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by2015” (OECD, 2000). Water and sanitation projects coupled with hygiene promotionare also recognised as important in order to achieve all the MDG Goalsimprovements, including reduction of poverty, gender issue, health improvement andeducation (Trevett, 2005). Africa, where 28% of the total un-served population forwater supply live (WHO/UNICEF, 2000), has a great challenge ahead. As the mostpopulated country of the continent, Nigeria will be central as to whether or not Africareaches the MDG (DFID, 2004).Nigeria, the “giant” of Africa in terms of population and oil economy, has lots toachieve in order to reach these targets, meanwhile it has a rapid population growth.The relatively recent democratic government (1999) has to cope with extremepoverty, low human development (cf. Box 1), a history of corruption anddecentralisation of responsibility for water and sanitation from central to localgovernment (WaterAid, 2005). These constraints partially explain why theGovernment has not been successful in fulfilling its responsibility to provide safewater supply to his citizens up to now. Orubu (2006) promotes the need nowadays toinvolve all stakeholders in the process of sustainable water resources management –e.g. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the private sector and Community-Based Organisations (CBOs). The new national policies emphasising water andsanitation, the increasing involvement of local governments and these new actors havethe potential to improve the situation.Cranfield University at Silsoe 1 Florianne Bourrigault (2006)