Water accessibility at household levels in Zambia: a case study of Fitobaula settlement

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Wednesday 1 july 2015

12:30 - 12:33h at Asia (level 0)

Themes: (T) Hydro-environment, (ST) Impacts of pollutants on the water environment, Poster pitches

Parallel session: Poster pitches: 9G. Environment - Impact

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Zambia has good climate with favourable rainfall pattern; this provides sufficient recharge for the surface and ground water resources. In spite of the sufficient surface and ground water resources, accessibility to water at household levels is problematic both in quality and quantity. The study examined water accessibility as well as water quality at household level. The research looked at the sources of water for the households and considered the complications of accessibility to water and the available opportunities therein. The investigation involved fifty households and the data was collected by the use of questionnaires (to assess accessibility) and laboratory tests (for ascertaining water quality). In addition to this, government departments such as the health, agriculture, forestry and education as well as the municipal council were interviewed on the topic under study. The study was descriptive in nature where clustered sampling procedures using simple random methods were utilised to select the households which were to participate in the study. The key findings were that; accessibility to water household levels is still a challenge in the settlement as most of the point sources (shallow wells, the stream and the river) were found to be contaminated. In addition to this, it was found that there was no direct relationship between the economic performance of a household and the accessibility to water. The study also observed that there were opportunities among the people in the settlement as they were increasingly getting into the education system and adult literacy was being encouraged in the settlement. Furthermore, the settlement has groundwater resources which indicate that there can be sufficient water provision for the settlers.