Of the various natural resources necessary for human survival and good health, provision of adequate water supply is a major challenge to many municipalities not only in Kenya but Africa as a whole. In 2000, an estimated one-sixth of the world’s population was without access to improved water supply with the majority of these people living in Asia and Africa. This study reports a cross-sectional survey that sought to establish the water supply situation among households living in the high, middle and low income areas within the municipality of Naivasha in Kenya. Data from a random sample of 385 households was obtained from the residential areas with secondary and primary data obtained from the Naivasha Water and Sanitation Company. Primary data was collected on water access, alternative water sources, water quality, per capita water use and cost of water. The data were collected using questionnaires, scheduled interviews, and observations and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Our results indicated that only 63% of respondents used improved sources of water. Further, there was no significant difference between the amounts of water used per person per day across the three income levels. Water demand in Naivasha outstrips supply and people resort to using boreholes which have more reliable supply. The study showed that the respondents were able to access water as per the minimum required quantities postulated by the WHO guidelines. However, the middle and low income groups spend more than the stipulated proportions of their income on water. There was no significant difference between the water used by households across the income levels. The usage was significant depending on the number of household members and the amount of household activities that require water use per day. Households that could not afford their water requirements forced them to reduce water usage thereby compromising hygiene. This study shows that access to safe water still remains a challenge and the overall achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion without access to safe water may be hampered by challenges of urbanization and rapid population growth. It is recommended that more effort be made to increase access to safe water to mitigate the various inequalities described here and to reduce incidences of water related diseases.
Published in | American Journal of Biological and Environmental Statistics (Volume 2, Issue 2) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11 |
Page(s) | 7-12 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Water Access, Water Demand, Per Capita Water Access, Cost of Water
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APA Style
Vishwa Nath Maurya, Ram Bilas Misra, Peter K. Anderson, Swammy Vashist. (2016). A Case Study on Water Supply Access and Demand Using Descriptive Statistical Methods. American Journal of Biological and Environmental Statistics, 2(2), 7-12. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11
ACS Style
Vishwa Nath Maurya; Ram Bilas Misra; Peter K. Anderson; Swammy Vashist. A Case Study on Water Supply Access and Demand Using Descriptive Statistical Methods. Am. J. Biol. Environ. Stat. 2016, 2(2), 7-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11
AMA Style
Vishwa Nath Maurya, Ram Bilas Misra, Peter K. Anderson, Swammy Vashist. A Case Study on Water Supply Access and Demand Using Descriptive Statistical Methods. Am J Biol Environ Stat. 2016;2(2):7-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11
@article{10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11, author = {Vishwa Nath Maurya and Ram Bilas Misra and Peter K. Anderson and Swammy Vashist}, title = {A Case Study on Water Supply Access and Demand Using Descriptive Statistical Methods}, journal = {American Journal of Biological and Environmental Statistics}, volume = {2}, number = {2}, pages = {7-12}, doi = {10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajbes.20160202.11}, abstract = {Of the various natural resources necessary for human survival and good health, provision of adequate water supply is a major challenge to many municipalities not only in Kenya but Africa as a whole. In 2000, an estimated one-sixth of the world’s population was without access to improved water supply with the majority of these people living in Asia and Africa. This study reports a cross-sectional survey that sought to establish the water supply situation among households living in the high, middle and low income areas within the municipality of Naivasha in Kenya. Data from a random sample of 385 households was obtained from the residential areas with secondary and primary data obtained from the Naivasha Water and Sanitation Company. Primary data was collected on water access, alternative water sources, water quality, per capita water use and cost of water. The data were collected using questionnaires, scheduled interviews, and observations and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Our results indicated that only 63% of respondents used improved sources of water. Further, there was no significant difference between the amounts of water used per person per day across the three income levels. Water demand in Naivasha outstrips supply and people resort to using boreholes which have more reliable supply. The study showed that the respondents were able to access water as per the minimum required quantities postulated by the WHO guidelines. However, the middle and low income groups spend more than the stipulated proportions of their income on water. There was no significant difference between the water used by households across the income levels. The usage was significant depending on the number of household members and the amount of household activities that require water use per day. Households that could not afford their water requirements forced them to reduce water usage thereby compromising hygiene. This study shows that access to safe water still remains a challenge and the overall achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion without access to safe water may be hampered by challenges of urbanization and rapid population growth. It is recommended that more effort be made to increase access to safe water to mitigate the various inequalities described here and to reduce incidences of water related diseases.}, year = {2016} }
TY - JOUR T1 - A Case Study on Water Supply Access and Demand Using Descriptive Statistical Methods AU - Vishwa Nath Maurya AU - Ram Bilas Misra AU - Peter K. Anderson AU - Swammy Vashist Y1 - 2016/10/21 PY - 2016 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11 T2 - American Journal of Biological and Environmental Statistics JF - American Journal of Biological and Environmental Statistics JO - American Journal of Biological and Environmental Statistics SP - 7 EP - 12 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2471-979X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbes.20160202.11 AB - Of the various natural resources necessary for human survival and good health, provision of adequate water supply is a major challenge to many municipalities not only in Kenya but Africa as a whole. In 2000, an estimated one-sixth of the world’s population was without access to improved water supply with the majority of these people living in Asia and Africa. This study reports a cross-sectional survey that sought to establish the water supply situation among households living in the high, middle and low income areas within the municipality of Naivasha in Kenya. Data from a random sample of 385 households was obtained from the residential areas with secondary and primary data obtained from the Naivasha Water and Sanitation Company. Primary data was collected on water access, alternative water sources, water quality, per capita water use and cost of water. The data were collected using questionnaires, scheduled interviews, and observations and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Our results indicated that only 63% of respondents used improved sources of water. Further, there was no significant difference between the amounts of water used per person per day across the three income levels. Water demand in Naivasha outstrips supply and people resort to using boreholes which have more reliable supply. The study showed that the respondents were able to access water as per the minimum required quantities postulated by the WHO guidelines. However, the middle and low income groups spend more than the stipulated proportions of their income on water. There was no significant difference between the water used by households across the income levels. The usage was significant depending on the number of household members and the amount of household activities that require water use per day. Households that could not afford their water requirements forced them to reduce water usage thereby compromising hygiene. This study shows that access to safe water still remains a challenge and the overall achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion without access to safe water may be hampered by challenges of urbanization and rapid population growth. It is recommended that more effort be made to increase access to safe water to mitigate the various inequalities described here and to reduce incidences of water related diseases. VL - 2 IS - 2 ER -