Factors influencing women's access to water in Oke-Ogun Region, Nigeria

This paper examines community Water Access Index (WAI), investigates the determinants of women’s access to water, and identifies windows of opportunities for improved water access in Oke-Ogun region in Nigeria. The study adopted triangulation methodology via household survey, focus group discussions and key-informant interviews for data collection. The result indicates that women’s access to water depends on their socio-economic characteristics, physical availability and location of water resources. The water access index (WAI) of the study area is 36.3 indicating that more than two-third of women in Oke-Ogun region is without reasonable/acceptable water access. Key Words: Water access, Water resources, Women, Oke-Ogu

Application of the Water Vulnerability Index in Oke-Ogun Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

Access to water is influenced by many biophysical and socio-demographical contexts which can trigger vulnerability or modify adaptive capacity of local communities due to a greater dependence on water resources that are climate sensitive for livelihood supports. The study provides a method of assessing vulnerability to water scarcity by applying the Water Vulnerability Index (WVI) for three case study communities (Iseyin, Okeho and Shaki) in Oke-Ogun region, Nigeria. Data were captured through household survey in the case study communities alongside with a document review. Frequencies of responses to study variables were categorised to form the sub-components of WVI such as access, resources, capacity, and environment. Results indicate that within the study region, there are significant variances in the WVI of each community depending on land and water-related livelihoods and in relation to different socio-demographic characteristics. The critical areas with less WVI are the informal neighbourhoods where residents are predominantly agrarian, pointing to the fact that households living in most biophysically vulnerable places are mostly affected by water scarcity and are in need of critical interventions for adaptation. Key words: Water access, water scarcity, water vulnerability index, Oke- Ogu

Fracture aquifers identification in the Zou basin (West Africa) using remote sensing and GIS

The riparian communities of the Zou basin of West Africa rely heavily on drinking water supplied by fractured aquifer systems. This study aims to provide accurate fracture maps and derived products (fracture density, coincidence map and cross-points) using Landsat 8 (visible and infrared bands) and PALSAR DEM datasets with borehole data collected from the national integrated database. Digital image processing techniques through image enhancement and directional Sobel filters application were used to analyse Landsat 8 and PALSAR data. Results show that the main orientations of fractures are N10-N20, N90-N100 and N180 for the visible, N10-N20, N40-N50, N90, N140 and N180 for the infrared and for the PALSAR DEM, they are N10-N20, N90-N100 and N170-N180. The fracture length overall interval is 0.15 to 21.2 km and the cumulative length of each fracture map is adjusted to power law with characteristic of exponent respectively 0.86, 0.91 and 0.96. The chi square test of cumulative length versus class frequency reveals a significant relationship for the visible and PALSAR fracture maps. Although, the calculated is greater than the theoretical chi square for the infrared, there is a strong and positive correlation for the three fracture maps (0.94, 0.99 and 0.98). More than 50% of the fracture cross-points (CP) occurs with the North-South (NS) orientations. The coincidence map analysis shows that the PALSAR fracture map has the highest ratio of 0.88, proving it should prioritize over the visible and infrared maps. High flow (Q  5 cubic m/h) boreholes located near the N10, N20 and N180 main orientations are more than 50% confirming their significant contribution to aquifers’ productivity. The spatial and statistical analyses of these fractured aquifers are critical to improve drinking water access and water resources planning for the basin communities