Article
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Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Decreasing access to water and coping strategies to shortage in informal settlements of Calabar, Nigeria.
Version 1
: Received: 22 September 2023 / Approved: 25 September 2023 / Online: 25 September 2023 (08:15:25 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Nchor, J.U.; Ukam, L.E. Decreasing Access to Water and Coping Strategies for Shortage in the Informal Settlements of Calabar, Nigeria. Sustainability 2024, 16, 4603. Nchor, J.U.; Ukam, L.E. Decreasing Access to Water and Coping Strategies for Shortage in the Informal Settlements of Calabar, Nigeria. Sustainability 2024, 16, 4603.
Abstract
Calabar is a city where 65 per cent of people are living in poverty in informal settlements with low and decreasing access to improved water. In the low-income informal areas of the city, residents are being made responsible for securing their own water supply through several coping strategies. This paper explores the decreasing access to water and coping strategies to shortage in Calabar, Nigeria. It analyses two complementary pieces of data: (i) the households’ coping strategies and (ii) satisfaction with improved water services. A mixed method was introduced and data was collected via fieldwork at three settlements in Calabar. A household survey of 360 respondents, 27 in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups were conducted. Findings show that households engaged in different coping strategies to access water, including conservation (changing routine/reusing), purchasing (spent a significant proportion of their income on buying water) and pumping as a coping strategy. The household's tenure, socioeconomic status and water accessibility determines their decision to move if services are not provided. A crucial differentiation exists between a larger population being granted less access to water versus certain individuals receiving access to a greater quantity of water.
Keywords
water; water accessibility; water system; resilient; coping strategies; households.
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Water Science and Technology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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