Omolara Lade^1,, David Oloke^2,

The largest environmental challenge that Nigeria is facing today is water scarcity. Current water use already exceeds renewable supply. Many methods have been suggested to increase the sources of water supply; and one of these alternative sources is rainwater harvesting (RWH). Rainfall harvesting from rural/urban catchments has received little attention in Nigeria. To better understand common practises in the RWH community and motivation for collecting harvested rainwater a socio-demographic survey was conducted in the 11 local government areas of Ibadan city in Nigeria to determine the rate of water consumption and supply from current water sources. The methodology adopted was the mixed method approach, involving a detailed literature review, followed by a questionnaire survey of 1067 household respondents. The data collected through the survey were analysed using SPSS and selected statistical methods such as Chi-square test. The survey was carried out from July-September 2012 and a response rate of 89% (950 households) was recorded. The survey questions focused on the socio-economic characteristics of households and the sources of water supply, catchment materials, rainwater harvesting technology, purpose of RWH, demand and usage of water, effectiveness of management strategy and environmental health. The most commonly reported source of water supply is groundwater with>83.8% of respondents depend on it as their main source of supply, which are vulnerable to drought and pollution while only 6.6% harvest rainwater. 69% of the respondents have corrugated iron sheet while <14% of the respondent’s roof are made of roofing tiles and cement concrete respectively. 54% of those with roofing tiles use the harvested water for drinking, while 43% of those with cement roofs use it for cooking and drinking respectively. A larger proportion (61.2%) of respondents chose prevalence of typhoid fever in the study area; some have a prevalence of diarrhoea (19.4%), while few of respondents’ water sources is free from water-borne diseases (2.3%). This indicates that there is a prevalence of 97.8% of water-borne diseases. Over 77.1% of respondents did not receive water at all from Water Corporation of Oyo State, while few of respondents did receive water supply. This survey provides critical data about current potable and non-potable RWH practices in Nigeria and can serve as guidance for future RWH research. In particular, the inadequacy of water supply in the City should be investigated further as the demand for sustainable RWH system in Nigeria continues to grow.

rainwater harvesting, survey, catchment, sustainable water supply