An Examination of Safe Water Supply Determinants in Some Peri-Urban Communities of South-East Nigeria

In most peri-urban communities of south east Nigeria, shortages of domestic water supply relative to demand is a common feature of such areas. This is because most of these peri-urban communities usually fall outside the urban water supply projects physical boundary, thus forcing the people who live in such areas to consume water from doubtful sources which most often contain pathogens found in human faeces. Apart from consuming water from doubtful sources, most inhabitants of this area also travel long distances to collect it or pay dearly to purchase from water vendors. The study was therefore undertaken to determine the factors necessary for safe water supply in such areas. Towards achieving this objective, 2000 questionnaire were designed and administered to households in the area between January and June, 2013. A total of 15 factors were isolated and analysed in 10 peri-urban communities of the region. The major analytical tool employed was multiple regression analysis with which we were able to determine the relative importance of each variable using SPSS version 20. Based on the result obtained, important determining factors for safe and sustainable water services namely open defeacation near the water source, dominant type of land use near water source and distance to refuse dumpwere discussed in terms of their implications to the formulation of needed policy that will ensure improvement in supply of the service to meet demand.