Space and Time Dimensions in Pipe-borne Water Delivery in Erelu Waterworks Zone, Oyo state, Nigeria
Clean piped water is essential for health, productivity, and sustainability. Unfortunately, the delivery of this vital service becomes increasingly difficult in urban areas of Nigeria owing to various infrastructural and demographic challenges. Descriptive statistics and percentages were used to analyze expert interviews and customer records.The analysis of household subscriptions in the Erelu water zone shows an enormous systematic drop over four decades. In the 1970s, subscriptions reached 76.94%, divided equally between traditional (31.62%) and first-generation modern districts (31.94%). In the 1980s, there was an addition of 9.69%, but there was only a 4.20% addition in the 1990s—this brought the percentage of subscriptions to 90.83%, which showed a gap between demand and supply. The implementation of a rotation plan of supply in the 1990s did not succeed due to electrical breakdowns and inefficiency of high-lift pumps to reach the Sooro Hill booster station. In the 2000s, there was an enormous drop in active subscriptions to 9.17%, of which 8.81% were found to be restricted to Atiba Local Government Area alone, where the water works were located. More importantly, 90.83% of previous subscribers in historical areas, including some whole districts in Afijio and Oyo East, were disconnected. Delivery of water became economically discriminatory, where institutions like the Federal Government Girls’ College received water, whereas traditional areas like Balogun and Saakin did not receive water. Pipe-borne water sustainability can be guaranteed by ensuring that IWRM is adopted, infrastructure development is done as a matter of urgency, corruption is tackled vigorously, and tariffs are increased through law.
