CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Water as defined by The English Dictionary (2016) is a substance (of molecular

formula H2O) found at room temperature and pressure as a clear liquid; it is
present naturally as rain, and found in rivers, lakes and seas; its solid form is ice
and its gaseous form is steam. Every day, people depend on the health, social,
economic and environmental benefits that clean and safe water provides. Water
is common factor to the other four among the five basic human needs namely
air, water, food, light, and heat. This is where Adeleye, Medayese, and Okelola
(2014) based their argument that water is life since it is very critical to human
life. This means that it is one of the world's most valuable resources. It is a
basic necessity of life for both plants and animals. Mankind cannot, in fact,
survive without water as even the human body is made up of about 70% water
(Human Development Report, contained in Adeleye et al., 2014).

In other words, water is an essential resource to living things. It is both the most
common and the most precious substance on earth. Without water, there can be
no life. It is a key component in poverty alleviation efforts and reflects the
health and sanitation of people in the country (Lukman, Ismail, Asani,
Bolorunduro, Foghi, et al., 2014).

In the general Assembly of the human right to water and sanitation, the
Assembly established the right of every human being to have access to
sufficient water for personal and domestic uses (between 50 and 100 liters of
water per person per day), which must be safe, acceptable and affordable (water
costs should not exceed 3% of household income), and physically accessible
(the water source has to be within 1,000 metres of the home and collection time
1
should not exceed 30 minutes). The crucial importance of water to so many
aspects of human health, development and well-being led to the inclusion of a
specific water-related target in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
(Adeleye et al., 2014).

At the continental level, America has the largest share of the world’s total
freshwater resources with 45 percent, followed by Asia with 28 percent, Europe
with 15.5 percent and Africa with 9 percent. In terms of resources per inhabitant
in each continent, America has 24,000m3/year, Europe 9,300m3/year, Africa
5,000m3/year and Asia 3,400.1m3/year (FAO Report, 2016). The report further
revealed that at country level, there is an extreme variability in total renewable
water resources: from a minimum of 10m3/inhabitant in Kuwait to more than
100,000m3/inhabitant in Canada, Iceland, Gabon and Suriname. For 19
countries or territories, the total renewable water resources per inhabitant are
less than 500m3; and the number of countries or territories with less than
1,000m3/inhabitant is 29. The ten poorest countries in terms of water resources
per inhabitant are Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Maldives,
Malta, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In the large
countries, water resources are also distributed unevenly in relation to the
population.

In Africa, much remains to be done. Several researches have revealed that

generally the provision of drinking water is difficult in African cities because
they are characterized by high rates of population growth. Cities are complex
systems requiring special methods of prediction and management. The task of
the city manager is made more complex by the fact that most of the rapidly
growing cities are either located in water stress or water scarce regions, with
diminishing per capita water availability or are confronted by issues of control
and governance which affect improvement of water supply. More than 700

2
million people still lack ready access to improved sources of drinking water;
nearly half are in Sub-Saharan Africa (WHO/UNICEF, 2014). Although access
to water supply and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa has been steadily
improving over the past two decades, the region still lags behind all other
developing regions. Access to improved water supply has increased from 49%
in 1990 to 60% in 2008 (WHO/UNICEF, 2014).

In Nigeria, Idu (2015) held that water is widely regarded as the most essential
of natural resources, yet freshwater systems are directly threatened by human
activities and stand to be further affected by climate change and anthropogenic
activities. Idu (2015) again added that the water resources of Nigeria are
enormous and unevenly distributed among the various hydrological areas. No
society can do without access to potable water and sanitation, hence it is
essential to always think of ways of dealing with problems of poor water supply
and sanitation.

Based on the foregoing, it is appropriate to ascertain that the provision and

supply of water need to be investigated at all levels. It is to determine the extent
to which water supply has impacted the residents of hostels in Nigerian
universities that the researcher is motivated to carry out this study with
particular reference to Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) is one of the academic

institutions in the heart of Imo state. Over the years, the university has
witnessed remarkable expansion in physical infrastructure and growth in the
population of staff and students which by observation keep increasing from year
to year and as a result has led to lots of problems specifically relating to poor
condition in terms of water supply. It is unfortunate that both the federal, state

3
government and the university management have left the students that reside
within the campus walls in various hostels to suffer for years as they have been
facing water deficit for almost three decades evidently observed especially in
hostel B, hostel C, hostel D and PGD hostel among others.

Furthermore, the population of students residing in these hostels have relied

solely on the ancient hand pumps they refer to as “manpower pumps” as the
only dependable source of water supply in most of the hostels for the past three
decades. Issue being that the newly constructed boreholes are not reliable.
Considering that the hostels’ carrying capacities are always exceeded by far
resulting in overcrowding alongside the fact that the hand pumps were only
provided one per hostel, it is not farfetched to notice that these students may be
living in disastrous conditions with implications on their health and academic
performances.

Moreover, students waste too much of their time in fetching water; time that
they could use in a more productive way. A female student said “Water is gold
here in the hostels; you will find many people waiting for the water even before
it starts coming”. The situation leads to some even fighting. Some will engage
in arguing, while others will use force to attempt to jump the long water queue.
The irony of the matter is that the university has a mini water treatment plant
just within the axis of the Senate Complex that has a well drilled borehole
supplying it's water for sachet water production called FUTO table water
whereas at the other end, i.e. at the students residence, the naturally existing
resource is nowhere to be found such that would sustain the daily demand of it.
The ultimate question is “is there nothing the university management could do
to salvage the miserable situation of things or is it a matter of interest?”

4
 In 2015, the residents of these hostels protested against the university
management because of water scarcity in their hostels. The protest led to the
vandalism of the university infrastructure and almost cost some their lives.

The water scarcity makes the hostels unconducive to live in; students find it
difficult to flush toilets, therefore, they resolve to open surface defecation
around their hostels leaving the environment in a state of poor sanitary
condition. It is a total failure of past university administrations and currently,
nothing is been done about the situation of poor water supply in the university
community. The present condition of things demands that something needs to
be done urgently because the number of people living within the campus has
been geometrically increasing and is still increasing. There is need to find a
better idea on how to provide uninterrupted water for the university community,
if not, in the near future, the campus hostels would be inhabitable.

Going by this, it will be imperative to investigate the state of water provision

and supply in FUTO hostels by so doing unearthing meaningful avenue for
improvement. This study is therefore designed to address this concern.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

1.3.1 Aim of the Study

The aim of this study is to assess water needs of students living in hostels in the
Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO).

1.3.2 Objectives of the Study

This aim was achieved through the following objectives;

i. to determine the population characteristics of students living in FUTO

hostels;

5
 ii. to identity the main source of water supply in the university hostels;
iii. to determine the distance and time spent for water collection in the study
area;
iv. to estimate the amount of water consumption per capita per day in the
university hostels.

1.4 Scope of the Study

The study focused on the assessment of water needs in hostels in Federal

University of Technology, Owerri.
The study specifically examined the population characteristics of the students
(gender, age, level of education, hostel distribution and number of persons per
room), sources of water supply (borehole, hand pump, and rain water), distance
travelled to fetch water, amount of time spent in fetching water, amount of
water consumed per day, amount of water needed per day, time taken to fix the
borehole and hand pump when they breakdown, major causes of breakdown,
and frequency of water supply.

1.5 Research Questions

This study tried to find answers to the following research questions:

i. What are the population characteristics of the students living in FUTO
hostels?
ii. What is the main source of water supply in the university hostels?
iii. What is the distance and time spent for water collection in the study area?
iv. What is the amount of water consumption per capita per day in the
university hostels?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

H0: The quantity of water needed by students is not significantly different from
the quantity of water currently consumed by these students.

H1: The quantity of water needed by students is significantly different from the
quantity of water currently consumed by these students.

1.7 Justification of the Study

This work is expected to provide a proper understanding for the subject matter
under study, thus it will be of immense help in tackling the problem of its
practical perspective.

Generally, the main purpose of the study is to come out with the baseline data
for better planning and provision of water supply infrastructure in Nigerian
universities. The research may be a standard reference in terms of policy
generation that may benefit both public and private universities.

Thus, an investigation into water needs in FUTO hostels may provide an insight
into its current state and reveal whether there is need for improvement of not.
Furthermore, improving efficiency in the supply of water may lead to reduction
in health issues associated to its scarcity as well as its concomitant increase in
academic performance of students.

Hence, the study is intended to be of interest to future researchers, policy

makers and university managements who would find the study very essential as
a guide in restructuring the system of water provision and supply and thus make
it a contributor to national water resource management.

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1.8 Limitations of the Study

The study however was not without hindrances. Below are some of the factors
that posed as challenges toward achieving the aim of this research.
i. Data Collection: There were difficulties experienced in the collection of
vital information from the students as many of them are too angry to respond.
ii. Dearth of information: There is a dearth of information on the subject
matter because there are very few published literatures pertaining to the study
area especially on water needs.
iii. Time Factor: Moreover, time factor also posed a major challenge as the
time frame was not adequate for the researcher to carry out a wide research
work.
However, these limitations were maneuvered such that they did not influence
the findings/result of the study.

1.9 Presentation of the Study Area

1.9.1 Location and Site of Study

Federal University of Technology Owerri is in Imo State of Nigeria and

is about 25 kilometers south of Owerri sharing common boundaries with
communities of Ihiagwa, Obinze, and Eziobodo. The area (FUTO
Community) is described between Latitudes 5° 24' and 5° 30' N and Longitudes
6° 58' and 7° 30' E covering a minimum land area of Ten thousand (10,000)
acres or 4,048 hectares (Nwosu et al., 2016). The towns adjoining the
university, whose ground and surface water systems are in close
hydrogeological connectivity, include Avu, Obinze, Ihiagwa, Nekede and
Eziobodo (Onyekuru et al., 2017).

8
Figure 1: Study Area Map

Source: FUTO Physical Planning Unit, 2018.

9
1.9.2 Climate and Vegetation

The prevalent climatic condition in the study area is marked by two main
regimes: the wet (rainy) and the dry seasons (Onyekuru et al., 2017). The wet
season lasts from April to October, during which the temperature varies from 23
to 26 0C. The season is associated with prevalence of moisture-laden maritime
southwest trade winds from the Atlantic Ocean. The mean annual rainfall in
Owerri area is about 2400 mm (Monanu and Inyang, in Onyekuru et al., 2017).
A short spell of dry season is felt in August (August Break), which is caused by
the deflection of the moisture-laden westerly trade wind by the cold Canary
current. Due to vagaries of weather, the August break sometimes occurs in July
or early September (Monanu and Inyang, in Onyekuru et al., 2017). The dry
season commences in November when the dry continental north-easterly winds
blow from the Mediterranean Sea, across the Sahara Desert down to the
southern part of Nigeria. During the dry season, humidity is low and clouds are
absent. The effect of the desiccating north easterly wind (Harmattan) is felt
during the dry season with a mean annual temperature of 32 0C (Ibe et al.,
contained in Onyekuru et al., 2017).

The study area is characterized by two types of land forms: undulating lowlands
and near level plains (Onyekuru et al., 2017). The lowlands around the senate
building of FUTO community are dissected by River Otamiri which originated
as a spring around Egbu in the southern part of the study area. The highlands
and lowlands respectively serve as recharge and discharge areas of the surface
and groundwater systems (Onyekuru et al., 2017). The study area lies within the
tropical rain forest belt of Nigeria with natural luxuriant vegetation. This
vegetation in the greater part of the area has, however, been replaced by derived
savannah grassland interspersed with oil palm trees and cash crops like cassava,
melon and yam, arising from widespread subsistence agricultural activities.
10
Moderately thick vegetation is found near and along the banks of Otamiri River,
other surface water bodies and wetlands in the study area, forming fringing
forests. Raffia palms, bamboo thickets and water grasses are predominant in
these swampy environments (Onyekuru et al., 2017).

Soil in the area belongs to the ferralitic type, mainly orthoxic troproducts and
Dystric Farrasols (Bordoni, in Onyekuru et al., 2017). The soil profile is
somewhat uniform throughout the study area. Generally, the study area is
underlain by intensely weathered and leached uniform sands, loamy sands and
black clays.

The study area and its environs are underlain by the Benin Formation (Coastal
Plain Sands), which is an extensive stratigraphic unit in the south-eastern
Nigerian sedimentary basin. The formation is of Miocene-Pleistocene age and
consists of very friable sands with intercalations of shale and clay lenses (Short
and Stauble, contained in Onyekuru et al., 2017). The formation also contains
small isolated units of gravels, conglomerates, very coarse-grained sands and
sandstones in Owerri area (Ananaba et al., in Onyekuru et al., 2017). The
conditions of deposition are partly lagoonal and fluvio-lacustrine/deltaic
(Onyekuru et al., 2017). The formation dips south-westwards, starting as thin
edge at its contact with the Ogwashi-Asaba Formation in the far north of south-
eastern Nigeria and progressively thickens southwards to about 1000 m in
Owerri area (Avbovbo in Onyekuru et al., 2017). Mineralogically, the sandy
units which constitute over 90 % of the rock fragments are composed of over 95
% quartz (Onyeagocha, in Onyekuru et al., 2017). A marked banding of coarse
and fine layers with large scale cross-bedding are the major sedimentary
structures of the formation (Ofoegbu, in Onyekuru et al., 2017). The porous and
permeable sand units in the Benin Formation with inter-fingering sandy-clay
deposits and gravels form a multi-aquifer system in which the aquifer units are

11
separated by semi-impermeable sandy-clay aquitards. Three aquifer units have
been recognized in the lower Imo River Basin of which the study area is a part
(Uma and Egboka, in Onyekuru et al., 2017). They are the upper water table
aquifer, a middle semi-confined aquifer and a lower confined aquifer. The
bottom of the upper water table aquifer unit is at a depth of 100 m. The middle
semi-confined aquifer has an average thickness of 80m, while the lower
confined aquifer has an estimated thickness of over 600 m. Aquifer parameters
indicate high storage and transmissivity values. Well yields range from 54.24 to
231.50 m3 hr−1 (Uma and Egboka, contained in Onyekuru et al., 2017). Fecal
contamination of groundwater appears to pose serious problems in the study
area (Ezeigbo,in Onyekuru et al., 2017), reason being the over-reliance on
shallow groundwater resources as the main source of groundwater. This
scenario is indicative of the potential ease with which the water table (shallow)
aquifer units would be polluted by other categories of contaminants in the study
area. The study area is drained by River Otamiri, whose regional flow trend is
in the southwest direction. Stream discharge is mainly from surface run-off and
groundwater base flow, with peak stream discharge occurring between
September and October (Enuvie et al., contained in Onyekuru et al., 2017). The
bacteriological quality of most of the stream waters in the area is poor due to
widespread and indiscriminate human and animal defecation and very poor
waste disposal practices (Ezeigbo, in Onyekuru et al., 2017). The chemical
quality of the surface water bodies is also impaired mainly due to industrial
effluents and other anthropogenic activities (Ezeigbo, Ibe et al., in Onyekuru et
al., 2017).

1.9.3 Population and Activities

FUTO is a university community. Like every other university in Nigeria, it has

a mixed population characteristics made up of staff and students from various

12
parts of country and beyond. According to the data obtained from FUTO
Academic Planning and Development, the university currently has a population
of above 26,539 including students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and staff
(teaching and non-teaching), with seven hostels within the campus walls and
about 4,223 students’ residents.

Academic Total No. Of Total No. Of Total Total Estimated

Session Undergraduates Postgraduates No. Of No. Of population
Teaching Non-
Staff Teaching
Staff
2007/200 17146 1606 685 1988 21425
8
2008/200 17736 2604 631 2069 23040
9
2009/201 16164 2322 651 1894 21031
0
2010/201 17728 1086 758 2194 21794
1
2011/201 18046 1998 843 2202 23083
2
2012/201 19356 878 809 2150 23193
3
2013/201 20039 2725 875 2301 25943
4
2014/201 18778 2279 955 2446 24458
5
2015/201 19131 2117 943 2574 24765
6
2016/201 21110 1847 955 2627 26539
7

Table 1: Population Evolution of FUTO for a Period of Ten Years

(2007-2017)

Source: FUTO Academic Planning and Development (AP&D), 2017.

13
Inasmuch as the primary reason of these students is purely academicals (i.e. to
obtain academic degree), some of these students likewise engage in certain
commercial activities such as trading (buying and selling of wears, cosmetics,
academic materials and so on) and industrial activities such as moulding of
concrete blocks, assisting in building constructions, repairs and so on.

1.9.4 Infrastructure

FUTO engaged Messrs Concarplan – Enplan Group (a firm of Consultants) to

design the physical plan for the University (FUTO website, 2018). Thus, there
are a good number of buildings ranging from lecture halls, to conference
centers, Auditoriums, Workshops, Laboratories, Staff rooms and offices, Banks,
and so on. There is also the presence of electricity and well-constructed access
roads as part of the university infrastructure.

Moreover, a number of autonomous communities and homesteads all of which

had contributed land acquired for the development of the University surround
the university. These communities are Ihiagwa, Obinze, Umuoma, Nekede,
Eziobodo, Avu, Okolochi, Obibiezena, and Emeabiam. A new road between
Obinze and Naze, which connects the two mentioned major roads, bisects it.
The Otamiri River traverses the site from north to south. The beautiful
vegetation in its river basin forms an important physical feature.

14
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the researcher endeavoured to review certain literatures that are
related to the study to form a background and conceptual frame work. This
review also analyzed the sources of water supply and the importance of water.
It considers to a large extent; the critical views and opinions of intellectuals and
experts on the subject matter. Also, an investigation into the quantity, evolution
of water needs and the present state of water supply in the hostels was evaluated
to determine the level at which past efforts of the university administration on
water needs had impacted the students in FUTO hostels and their endeavours to
wedge the associated problems that result from water scarcity. The purpose of
this is to have an understanding and put into perspective the issues concerning
the subject matter.

2.2 Importance of Water

According to Adesogan (2014), water is a ubiquitous chemical substance that is

composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is vital for all known forms of life. In
typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also
has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapour or steam. About 71% of
the Earth's surface is covered by water. Even with the abundance of water on
earth, Chukwu (2015) argued that fresh water needed for human use, agriculture

15
and industry is limited. Adesogan (2014) suggested that the impact of water use
on ecosystems should be an intricate issue of special concern in every area of
the world as water is the one resource living things cannot subsist without.
Water is considered the most precious resource. Yet it is currently under attack
by human waste, pollution, privatization, and the exacerbation of climate
change. Harlander and Labuza as contained in Adesogan (2014) therefore
opined that people must be aware of the state of the world’s water and work to
preserve and conserve it for future generations.

Adesogan (2014) argued without doubt that the importance of water cannot be
overemphasized. He added that inadequate quantity and quality of water supply
have serious impact on water resources management and environmental
sustainability. The Problem of this nature has been increasing in scope,
frequency, and severity because the demand for water continues to increase
while supply of renewable water remains fixed (Okoye, 2015). However,
availability of water for the afore-mentioned uses has been a subject of concern
in developing countries especially in the rural and semi-urban area of the
country. Where it is available, the quality and quantity are far from the
internationally accepted standard. According to World Health Organisation
(WHO), World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) (2017): Joint Monitoring Programme about 844 million people
globally lack access to clean water supply while 2.5 billion people have no
access to adequate sanitation. It was also estimated that 319 million people are
without access to improved water supply in sub-Saharan Africa. The
consequence of this is that a large proportion of human beings have resorted to
the use of potentially harmful sources of water. In this regard, millions of
people are locked up in a cycle of poverty and disease. For example, United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recorded in 2010 that more than
14,000 people die each day, 11,000 of them being children are under five years

16
of age. Brown in Akeju, Oladehinde and Abubakar (2018) inserted that there
are more people in the world hospitals today, suffering from water-borne
diseases than any other ailment. Some two million children every year – about
6,000 a day – die from such infections. Out of this figure, 1.6 million are from
the developing countries (UNICEF Report in Akeju et al., 2018). The Water
Project (2015) concluded that poor water and sanitation conditions cause about
80% of all diseases and more than one-third of all deaths in developing
countries. The United Nations Facts about Water confirmed that with adequate
supplies of safe drinking water, the incidence of some illnesses and death could
drop by as much as 75%. Emphasizing the importance of water, Neilson in
Akeju et al., (2018) asserted that safe drinking water is not just a luxury
because it's a necessity: it usually creates a distinction between life and death.

Apart from the above problems, Akeju et al., (2018) suggested that lack of
clean and safe water is a significant challenge in rapidly growing urban centres
in developing countries, and Nigeria is not an exception. Prior to independent,
development of water supply and management in Nigeria showed that the
colonial administration expanded domestic water supply as part of the overall
programmes to improve the level of personal hygiene and environmental
sanitation throughout the country. Unfortunately, as opined by Coster and
Otufale (2014) the priority accorded domestic water supply by the colonial
administration had not been sustained by the post-independence government of
the country.

Idowu, Sojobi and Galkaye (2017) argued that strategic management and
provision of sustainable public water supply is essential and crucial for the
future of the world’s economy, economic and industrial development,
protection and improvement of public health, improving the quality and
standard of living, ecosystem preservation as well as poverty alleviation and

17
eradication especially in developing countries. Most developed and developing
countries are at risk of severe water shortages in the 21st century if urgent steps
are not taken (Mitrica, Mitrica, Enciu, & Mocanu, 2017 in Idowu et al., 2017).
This is because water supply poses a huge challenge to most urban, peri-urban
and rural areas in developing countries (Idowu, Sojobi, & Oyedepo, 2016;
Sojobi, Danhunsi, & Afolayan, 2015; Sojobi, Owamah, & Dahunsi, 2014).

Though these challenges are enormous, with pragmatic steps, they are
surmountable. Public water supply accounts for 90% of water supply in middle
and low-income countries (Hall and Lobina contained in Idowu et al., 2017 )
and serves domestic, institutional, industrial and commercial functions while
domestic water supply represents between 50–70% of public water supply
(Ayanshola, Sule, and Salami, 2013 in Idowu et al., 2017). Idowu et al., (2017)
suggested that improvement in water supply contributes to health equity by
reducing the link between poverty and disease prevents approximately 2.4
million deaths annually and averts approximately 7% of global burden of
diseases and 19% of child mortality worldwide. Furthermore, Idowu et al.,
gathered that provision of public water supply leads to 3.6% increase in per
capita GDP growth along with improved sanitation contributes to socio-
economic development and well-being increases school attendance as a result
of reduction of water-borne diseases (Kosec, 2014) and is one of the indices of
development.

2.2.1 Importance of Water to Students in FUTO Hostels

Apart from the need for clean water for cooking, bathing, flushing of toilets,
and washing of clothes/dishes, and so on, observations have shown that the
students in FUTO hostels have overtime needed portable water for drinking.

18
Water serves many roles in the human body. It helps flush out waste products;
is the primary component of blood; aids in digestion; enables the body to
regulate its internal heat balance (via the process of sweating); maintains
cellular functioning; and helps maintain healthy metabolism, just to name a few
(Oswalt, 2018).  Research indicates that students remember more and stay
focused longer when they are hydrated. In fact, studies have found that that
drinking water can improve brain function by 15 percent (Pross, 2017).

The human brains depend on proper hydration to function optimally. Years of

research have found that when humans are parched, they have more difficulty
keeping their attention focused. Dehydration can impair short-
term memory function and the recall of long-term memory (Pross, 2017). This
means that water (especially that which is fit for drinking) is essentially needed
by the students in FUTO hostels because it is an important factor in students’
success. This results from the fact that the brain has no way to store water
(Watertech, 2014), it is important to continually drink water throughout the day.
When the body loses more water than is being replaced, dehydration occurs and
brain function can be affected. But when the brain is operating with plenty of
water, students are able to have greater clarity, creativity, focus and quicker
thought processes.

Pross (2017) suggested that proper hydration is essential for student success at
all ages. Another study found that college students who drank water during
exams got better grades. Water not only helps improve brain function, but
simply the act of drinking water may play a part in relieving anxiety during
tests (Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com).

2.3 Sources of Water Supply

19
Although, Nigeria is blessed with abundant water resources (estimated at 226
billion cubic meters of surface water and about 40 billion cubic meters of
ground water) many people especially the rural populations are largely deprived
and lack access to adequate water supplies (Adah and Abok in Obeta 2016).

Longe, Omole, Adewumi and Ogbiye (2014) concluded that Nigerians derive
their water from surface water (springs/stream/rivers), hand dug wells, rain
harvesting, pipe borne water, boreholes, and vendors. An estimated 224 billion
cubic meter of water is available, annually, from run-off of rivers in the eight
hydrological zones of the country. Groundwater resources in aquifers, however,
are yet to be quantified (Handidu, in Longe et al., 2014). Anyone who can
afford drilling costs simply goes ahead to tap groundwater sources without
recourse to geophysical tests or the obtaining of necessary permits from
regulatory bodies. Water is used in traditional settings, mainly for domestic
purposes, fishing, farming and irrigation, and raising livestock. The principal
domestic uses of water include drinking, washing, and bathing (Kuruk, in
Longe et al., 2014). It is estimated that 48% (about 67 million Nigerians) going
by 2006 census (FGN Report contained in Longe et al., 2014) make use of
surface water for their domestic needs, 57% (79 million) use hand dug wells,
20% (27.8 million) harvest rain, 14% (19.5 million) have access to pipe borne
water, and 14% have access to borehole water sources (FGN Report contained
in Longe et al., 2014).

Ahianba, Dimuna, and Okogun as summarized in Longe et al., (2014) posited

that 33.82% (47.3 million) Nigerians depend exclusively on surface water for
their domestic water supply, 28.27% (39.3 million) on hand dug well sources,
24.38% (33.9 million) on pipe borne water, 11.83% (16.4 million) on borehole
water sources, and 1.7% (2.4 million) on water vendors. Drinking water from
these sources are not regulated by federal and state agencies and typically do

20
not receive same level of monitoring and treatment as drinking water supplied
by public water supply agencies. These sources harbour water-borne disease
because they are also exposed to contamination by both natural and
anthropogenic factors (Obeta 2016).

2.4 Concept of Water Need

“Access to water” was broadly defined as the availability of at least 20 liters per
person per day from a source within one kilometre of the user’s dwelling. Types
of source that did not give reasonable and ready access to water for domestic
hygiene purposes, such as tanker trucks and bottled water, were not included
(bottled water was not considered “improved” because of concerns about the
quantity of supplied water, not the water’s quality) (Adeleye et al., 2014).

Oyeniyi and Oloyede (2016) attributed access to safe drinking water to the
percentage of the population that uses drinking water from improved sources;
improved drinking water sources include household connection, public
standpipes, boreholes, protected wells and springs. The proportion of
population having access to safe drinking water from improved sources has
decreased from 1990 to 1996 while the report of Joint Monitoring Program
(JMP) compiled from national data source show that in 1990 half (50%) of the
population uses water from improved source while in 2006, the number slightly
less than half (47%) used water from improved sources, the same report showed
slight improvement in sanitation coverage in Nigeria (Oyeniyi et al., 2016).

Worldwide, it is estimated that the global cost of meeting the millennium

development goal (MDG) target for water and sanitation ranges from US$ 6.6–
75 billion per annum (UN-Water report in Idowu et al., 2017) while the health
costs to households and national health systems, as a result of inadequate water
supply, is estimated at US$ 340 million and US $67 billion. In addition,

21
approximately 9% of GDP is the cost of inadequate water supply. Consistent
and apparent shortfalls in public water supply have forced many households to
resort to unwholesome water sources that are not potable. Most studies on
public water supply neglect water losses and do not consider different
population growth rates as well as different water consumption rates. Failure to
account for these important factors may lead to over-estimation or
underestimation of the real situation, which can be misleading to policy makers.
Inclusion of the aforementioned factors will ensure robust decisions are made
regarding public water supply towards achieving resilient public water supply
systems (Idowu et al., 2017).

According to the Government of Canada’s Environment Department,

freshwater lakes, rivers and underground aquifers represent only 2.5% of the
world’s total water supply. Unfortunately, in addition to being scarce,
freshwater is also very unevenly distributed. As many may know, the United
Nations has compared water consumption with its availability and has predicted
that by the middle of this century between 2 billion and 7 billion people will be
faced with water scarcity. Given this emerging reality, it is little wonder that
water has been described as “the oil of the twenty first century”, a scarce
commodity that will be a source of conflict between peoples and nations. In
addition to such a dire prediction, the United Nations also estimates that 1.2
billion in a world of just over 6 billion people do not have access to safe
drinking water and 2.4 billion lack proper sanitation facilities (UN Chronicle
contained in Adeleye et al., 2014)

However, Ishaku et al., in Lukman, Ismail, Asani, Bolorunduro, Foghi and Oke,
(2016) opined that access to potable water is measured by the number of people
who have reasonable means of getting an adequate (quality and quantity)
amount of water that is safe for drinking, washing and essential household

22
activities. Adequate access to potable water means that women and children
will spend limited time in fetching water that could be used actually for
drinking, cooking and other tasks. It is a key component in poverty alleviation
efforts and reflects the health and sanitation of people in the country. It shows
the country's capacity to collect and distribute treated water to consumers. In
2015, 67% of the total population had access to "at least basic water supply"
(WASHwatch, 2017). This was 82% of the urban population and 54% of the
rural population. In 2015, around 60 million people lacked access to "at least
basic" water. Lukeman et al., (2016) emphasized on the assessment of World
Health Organization WHO and UNICEF that there are at least 5 million deaths
per year due to the use of unsafe drinking water and at least 1.4 billion people
do not have access to drinking water. Significant portions of these deaths
occurred in developing countries such as Nigeria, India, etc. According to
Ishaku et al., in lukeman et al., (2016), about 3.5 billion people worldwide had
access to piped water supply. Another 1.3 million people had access to an
improved water source through other means than 624 house connections
including standpipes. More than 1.2 billion people did not have access to an
improved source of water. This shows that the sources of water of these people
are either unprotected wells or springs canals, lakes or river.

The water stress in urban areas is mounting as urbanization goes unchecked and
the strain on resources (water supply and sanitation) increases. A recent
assessment of drinking water and sanitation in Africa showed that Nigeria is not
on course towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of drinking
water and sanitation target (WHO and UNICEF, 2012a). Improvement on
access to safe water is a crucial element in the reduction of juvenile mortality,
morbidity, particularly in rural areas. WHO and UNICEF (2013) provided
information on global and regional access to safe water. However, information

23
on factors that have an influence on access to drinking water in Nigeria is rare
(Lukeman et al., 2016).

Furthermore, according to World Bank calculations using National Water

Supply and Sanitation Survey (NWSS) data (2015), improved water is available
to the majority of Nigerians, but the amount of time needed to access a reliable
water source varies greatly across the country. The NWSS 2015 also includes a
dataset on the functionality of water points and water schemes. A thorough
analysis of this data in chapter 6 finds that around half of the water points and
water schemes in Nigeria are not functioning. Map 3.8 presents the amount of
time needed to complete a round-trip journey to the closest functioning9 water
source from a given location, which is defined as the “rural accessibility index”.
Only 38.7 percent of the rural population live within a 30-minute roundtrip of a
functioning water source, and 34.3 percent of the population live at least two
hours away from these sources. Most alarmingly, over 26 million Nigerians
living in rural areas must travel four or more hours round-trip to access
functioning water points. These data were used to simulate a scenario in which
we assume “perfect functionality” for all rural water sources (last column in
table 3.4). After running the simulation, there remain low levels of access: only
42.3 percent of the rural population would have access to a water sources within
30 minutes, and more than 30 percent of the rural population would need to
walk at least two hours to these sources. This strongly suggests that efforts are
needed to expand the number of easily accessible functioning water sources in
addition to improving the number of functioning water sources (World Bank,
2017).

2.5 Water Deficiency and Associated Problems

Water is highly polluted by harmful pollutants arising from increase in human

population, industrialization, use of fertilizer and man-made activities (Patil et
24
al., in Nwosu and Nwosu, 2016). Good water gives good health and bad water
causes bad health due to its associated diseases and sicknesses such as typhoid
and diarrhea diseases. According to World Health Organization (WHO) such
diseases like water borne diarrhea accounts for an estimated 4.1% of total daily
global burden of diseases and cause about 1.8 million human deaths annually.
Hence, it is imperative that quality of drinking water should be checked at
regular time intervals since human population suffers from varied forms of
water born diseases (Patil et. al., in Nwosu et al., 2016).

Another interesting statistic informs that 54.6% (75.9 million) Nigerians use pit
latrines, exclusively, 13.71% (1.91 million) use water closet, exclusively,
0.58% (806, 200) use the bucket system, and 31.16% (43.3 million) Nigerians
use other unsanitary methods. Some of these unsanitary methods include
defecating in open fields and disposal into surface water bodies (Ahianba et al.,
in Longe et al., 2014). When rain falls, all the defecations disposed on land
could also get washed down with the runoff into the surface water bodies as
non-point source pollution. This is, beside the pollution, being discharged into
surface water bodies by industries. It can be inferred, therefore, that 47.3
million people in Nigeria are potentially at the risk of an epidemic outbreak if
our surface waters are not adequately protected through legislations guided by
scientific facts (Longe et al., 2014).

According to the USAID in Adeleye et al., (2014), planning access to improved

water is a daily challenge for most Nigerians. The problem is particularly acute
in the rural Northern Nigeria, where only about 30% of the population has
access to safe drinking water. This situation leads to a high prevalence of
waterborne diseases, threatens the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and
contributes to low levels of school enrolment, especially among girls.

25
There are various degrees of water shortage/scarcity and these could be
absolute, life threatening, seasonal, temporary, and cyclical. Water shortage is a
situation of absolute shortfall between available water and defined minimum
requirements (Okoye in Chukwu, 2015). On the other hand water security is a
condition where people have reliable and adequate access to good quality water
to meet the full range of their needs and are able to take advantage of the
opportunities that water resources present. They are protected from water
related hazards and have fair recourse where conflicts over water arise. From a
regional planning perspective, water shortage is often explained in terms of
urban morphology. Chukwu (2015) stressed the report of UN Habitat that water
is one of the ecological foot prints of a city. Its production, distribution and
management often affect and are affected by the settlement forms and
structures, which are manifested in the illegality and informality of urban
neighbourhoods. Urban locations which are densely populated and inaccessible
are definitely without water service networks and are mostly inhabited by the
poor. This makes the urban slum dwellers to be mostly affected by water
shortage. The importance of water and its effective management cannot be
overemphasized. Inadequate water supply and poor water quality give rise to
health and other societal issues, limit agricultural productivity and economic
prosperity, and pose national security risk. In order to effectively harness and
manage water, there is need to adopt sustainable measures and one of these
measures is cost recovery (Adah and Abok in Chukwu, 2015). Treating water as
an economic good enhances financial viability, by ensuring that tariffs cover the
costs of investments and operation and maintenance. Chukwu emphasizing the
observation of FRN concluded that Universal and sustainable provision of
water supply services is possible only if water is recognized as an economic
good, subject to the relation of supply and demand. Thus people’s demand for
water is a function of the price of water. Their willingness to pay for water is
influenced by the level of service they desire and the quality of the service they
26
receive. The management of water and other natural resources is too often
subject to poor governance, which contributes to insufficient and polluted water
and threatens the health and livelihood of millions of people. These problems
are particularly acute in poorer countries, in which people are mostly dependent
on their national resource base. Water management is highly complex and
extremely political. Therefore, balancing competing interests over water
allocation and managing water scarcity requires strong institutional approach
(Chukwu, 2015).

Jideonwo (2014) argued that in terms of cost, public water sources are 4–10
times cheaper compared to private sources while private water sources cost
twice the amount to operate and maintain costs of a piped distribution system.
Despite its cheapness, approximately 1.2 billion people still lack access to safe
drinking water in developing countries owing to lack of effective large scale
water-supply infrastructures (Gadgil, contained in Idowu et al., 2017). About 65
million Nigerians have no access to safe and adequate water supplies; the
number rose dramatically to 90 million in 2015 (UNICEF, 2015). Nigeria did
not meet the MDG target of halving by 2015 the population without adequate
access to improved drinking water sources. Nigeria ranks behind many other
sub- Saharan African countries such as Ghana, Rwanda, Botswana, and Sierra
Leone in access to potable water (Marks et al., in Obeta 2016). A significant
proportion of the Nigerian rural population continue to use rivers, ponds, lakes
and harvested rain as their main sources of water supply (Ezenwanji, in Obeta
2016). This category of Nigerians faces great risks to their health and wellbeing
(Obeta and Chukwu, 2013). Nigeria has a large rural sector and relatively a
small urban population (Utube, in Obeta 2016). The rural areas generally
exhibit great poverty, decayed infrastructure, poor health conditions, low access
to social facilities and ignorance as a result of varying degrees geographical and
political isolation. The rural areas have long been neglected and deprived.

27
According to Obeta (2016), the negligence has led to rural-urban migration
which in turn has created problems for both urban and rural areas. The current
situations in some states and communities of Nigeria, serve as tragic examples
of pains and sufferings experienced by people. In Yobe, Borno, Adamawa
Zamfara and Jigawa states, for instance, water shortages have aggravated the
refugee and food crises, forcing some residents to migrate southwards. In Bama
community (Borno State) polluted water remains the most important cause of
poor health, food insecurity and low pace of socio-economic development
(Toyobo and Taniowo as contained in Obeta 2016).

The limited access to water supplies by a significant proportion of the Nigerian

rural population has been blamed on institutional and socio-economic factors
(Ezenwaji, Eduputa and Okoye, 2016). Several researchers attributed the
prevailing water poverty in many rural communities of Nigeria, to poor
sustainability of water infrastructure, paucity of funds, inadequate technology
and lack of political will. Some of the researchers blamed engineers for poor
quality construction while some others attributed the problem to inadequate
community participation. According to Nyaba contained in Obeta (2016) the
general poor service delivery in the Nigerian water sector to rent-seeking and
poor governance of safe drinking water to a large segment of the Nigerian rural
population to inefficient system management which does not take into
cognizance the sustainability of the supply system for future generations.

2.6 The State of Water Supply in Nigeria

According to Adeleye et al., (2014), Public water supply started in Nigeria early
in the twentieth century in a few towns managed at the lowest administrative
level. Amongst the early beneficiaries were Lagos, Calabar, Kano, Ibadan,
Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode (Ogun State) and Enugu. The schemes were maintained
with revenue from water sales with virtually no operational subvention from
28
government. With the creation of regional governments in the early 1950s the
financial and technical responsibilities for developing new water schemes were
taken over by the regional governments who also assigned supervisory high
level manpower to oversee operations and maintenance. The regions were slow
to set up independent bodies to develop, operate and manage the water supply.
The first water corporation was formed in the western region in 1966 which
took over all the assets and liabilities, including the existing staff. The staff of
the Water Division of the Ministry of Works were also transferred to the new
corporation. The next corporations were formed in the 1970s. Today, all 36
states and the Federal Capital Territory have water boards/corporations or
public utilities boards managing their public water supply. Their efforts are
supplemented, in many cases, by local governments who supply water to small
villages in their areas of jurisdiction. The Federal Government got involved in
the management of water resources in 1976 when the Federal Ministry of Water
Resources and the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) were
created. The purpose of the RBDAs was to provide bulk water, primarily for
irrigation. Several of these water agencies and authorities still depend on
obsolete water equipment. This has been primarily due to reduced management
by Government and private sector organisation in the water sector compared
with other sectors such as oil and gas, energy, housing among others (Akeju et
al., 2018). Despite this, government in recent times has made efforts to ensure
provision of water supply in Nigeria, yet only 47 percent of the population had
access to an improved water source in 2008. In 2010, 54% had access to safe
water in urban households while less than 50% of rural households had access
to good portable water in Nigeria as against the National target of 65%. Public
water supply is regarded as a measure of access to safe water. However, access
to public water supply among Nigerians has decreased extensively from 14% in
1990 to 6% in 2008 (Akeju et al., 2018).

29
Akeju et al., (2018) further revealed that people still depend very much on other
sources such as hand-dug wells, ponds, streams, river and shallow wells for
their water needs. During the dry season, some of these sources dry up, and
households have to invest a substantial amount of their resources to get water of
doubtful quality. For instance, water supply in Owo Local Government Area
varies from one place to another, and so does the cost. While some have access
to public water supply (from Ondo state water corporation through the Ose
water scheme), others people have to pay for water supply from private
vendors. Owo LGA still suffers from a limited water supply, and present supply
coverage is less than 50%. According to Olugbamila and Ogunyemi (2015) out
of 300 respondents sampled, only 27, representing 9% of the entire population
derive and enjoy water supply from the public pipe-borne water. This shows a
sharp reduction from the number of people the scheme (Ose water scheme) was
meant to serve (26,000 people) when it was first constructed. The scheme
which was expected to pump about 130,000 gallons of water to Owo LGAs per
day is operating below expected capacity. Overtime, the quantity of water
supplied to the town on daily basis is grossly inadequate and could not solve the
problem of water shortage in the study area. In this wise most of the households
still depend on other water sources (i.e. water tankers, boreholes, well etc) for
water supply. The implication of the above scenario is that the citizens in the
study area are groaning under the acute safe water supply and would be willing
to pay for the supply of potable, reliable and quality water supply.

In Abia State, Nkemdirim, Okoroigwe and Alozie (2017) reported that water
supply is problematic, particularly potable water. The general picture about
potable water supply in Abia State is one of either total absence or gross
inadequacy of the existing system. Successive governments have been pursuing
with vigour aggressive water supply programme. Despite these efforts in water
related infrastructure, the public are still disenchanted because access to potable

30
water and the quality of services in this sector remains poor. The responsibility
of providing potable water in Abia State rests solely on the shoulders of the
State Water Board. But all it has to show for this is an array of abandoned
projects and obsolete equipments that have become monuments, a situation
which has resulted in one of either total absence or gross inadequacy of potable
water supply. This state of affair in which most existing water supply projects
are abandoned is very disturbing and unacceptable because water security is not
only for human consumption but provides a take-off ladder for the economic
development of any region. It is an established fact that the demand for water is
perfectly inelastic. Therefore, there is no substitute for water. Water can be put
into its best use when the water is of very good quality. The development of
adequate water supply is a function of availability of water sources; method and
efficiency of exploiting the source; and the effectiveness of the distribution
system (Chima in Nkemdirim et al., 2017). Hence, the availability of water
sources without proper method of exploiting them and subsequent distribution
to the final consumers may result in potable water supply shortages in relation
to demand.

On the other hand, in 1976 when Imo State was created, the defunct Imo State
Water Corporation inherited 45 water schemes from the East Central State
Water Corporation with an average production capacity of barely 20 liters daily
per person (Imo State Government, 2006). To address the problem of
inadequate water supply at that time, a master plan for regional water schemes
for seven urban areas was proposed. Amongst the seven urban areas, only three
(Owerri, Okigwe and Orlu) are in the present Imo State. Of these three, only
Owerri regional water scheme was successfully realized and commissioned.
World Health Organization (2014) argued that users need to play an important
role in the development, implementation, operation and maintenance of the
facilities.

31
Improving the quality of water supply is a priority for both rural and urban
development, thus far, the strategies of international donor and the government
have been supply driven. Therefore the value that consumers place on the social
services especially safe water has been ignored. Without a price for an
improved water supply service, there will be no control system which will result
in a distortion in water use. Since water lays between the two extremes private
and public goods, the market mechanism cannot be expected to provide signals
in the form of prices (Akeju et al., 2018).

2.6.1 State of Water Supply in FUTO Hostels; Trend and Evolution

Few studies have been carried out to determine the condition of water in FUTO
but some of these studies were carried out five years to ten years ago and by
essence have been over taken by events. As a matter of fact, the more recent
work as it relates to the subject matter under discussion is the work of Okoli,
Njoku, Chukwuocha, Njoku, Njoku, Dike and Ojiegbe, which was carried out
in the year 2005. Therefore, there is need to determine the current state of water
needs of the residents of FUTO hostels.

According to Okoli et al., (2005), Nigeria is heavily dependent on ground water

for various activities and the resident community of FUTO which is
predominated by on-campus students is no exception to this. Indeed, all the
staff and faculty members of the university reside in the adjoining towns. This
resident student community is heavily dependent on ground water for various
purposes. The university has however had reoccurring water shortage problem
among its resident students community that has led to improper human wastes
disposal in recent times. Students have resorted to answering the call of nature
in the adjoining bushes. In an attempt to solve this problem, the university
authority recently constructed and commissioned three new water boreholes at
the student hostels. While this action may have alleviated the problem of water
32
shortage considerably, there is however, the need to assess the quality
characteristics of water derived from these boreholes considering the history of
human and other waste disposal methods in the area.

Their study assessed the physico-chemical and bacteriological characteristics of

such underground water being utilized by the resident students. They gathered
that the overall mean conductivity value (102 us/cm) and those for individual
hostels were similar to the WHO recommended minimum (p>0.05). Other
physical characteristic values such as temperature, Total Dissolved Solids
(TDS), Total Suspended Solid (TSS), turbidity, color, odor and appearance
were equally significantly (p<0.05) lower than the WHO minimums. The
overall mean values recorded for pH (4.93), sulphate (1.00 mg L-1), nitrate (3.11
mg L-1) and free chlorine (0.04 mg L-1) were significantly (p<0.05) lower than
the WHO minimums. Mean values of iron, copper and manganese (0.61, 3.11
and 0.24 mg L-1, respectively) were on the other hand significantly (p<0.05)
higher than the WHO recommended minimum values. Total coliform and total
viable bacteria counts were too numerous and significantly higher than the
WHO recommended standards. However, Okoli et al., (2005) concluded that
there is an urgent need for the proper treatment before distribution of borehole
water being utilized at the student hostels in the Federal University of
Technology Owerri (FUTO). Such treatment should emphasize the disinfection
against coliforms and removal of excess iron, copper and manganese.

Currently, FUTO has a student population of over 22,957 (comprising of both

Undergraduates and Postgraduates) with about 18.40% (i.e. 4,223) of the total
population living in the school hostels (Projection using FUTO AP&D data,
2017). Past investigations have revealed that these students have hand pumps
(majorly relied on) boreholes and harvested rainwater as their major sources of
water.

33
There is no past study that contains the record of the amount of water needed by
the students in FUTO hostels over the years. However, the researcher has
observed that an individual student needs about 75 liters to 100 liters of portable
water per day for drinking and to be able to carry on with certain domestic
activities and personal hygiene.

However, using the current data obtained from the Department of Academic
planning and Development (AP&D) in 2017, the water needs evolution can be
estimated as shown in Table 1;

Where AAN = Average Amount Needed. AAR = Average Amount Received

Year Under- Post- Total Hostel AAN AAR

graduate graduate pop. (liters) (liters)
2007/2008 17146 1606 18752 3450 129388 86259
2008/2009 17736 2604 20340 3742 140346 93564
2009/2010 16164 2322 18486 3401 127553 85035
2010/2011 17728 1086 18814 3461 129816 86544
2011/2012 18046 1998 20044 3688 138303 92202
2012/2013 19356 878 20234 3723 139614 93076
2013/2014 20039 2725 22764 4188 157071 104714
2014/2015 18778 2279 21157 3892 145983 97322
2015/2016 19131 2117 21248 3909 146611 97740
2016/2017 21110 1847 22957 4223 158403 105602

Table 2: Estimated Values of Water Needs Evolution in FUTO Hostels for a

period of 10years (2007-2017)

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018.

2.7 Summary

The extent to which water resources development contributes to economic

productivity and social well being is not usually appreciated, although all social
and economic activities rely heavily on adequate quality or quantity of
freshwater supply. Safe drinking water and basic sanitation are crucial to the
34
preservation of human health, especially children. Water-related diseases are
the most common cause of illness and death among the poor in developing
countries (World Water Council Report, contained in Ohwo and Abotutu,
2014).

The World Bank while commenting on the world water challenge stated that
access to water supply services and sanitation is a major factor in reducing child
mortality. It revealed that of about 1.7 million deaths that occur every year
worldwide (90 per cent of which are children) are attributed to unsafe water,
poor sanitation and hygiene, mainly through infectious diarrhea. According to
the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, meeting the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) 7; Target 10 (halving the proportion of people
without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015)
would avert 470,000 deaths per year. The report also noted that the health
impact of such improvements will vary from one region to another because they
depend on the existing levels of water supply and sanitation access and the
region-specific levels of morbidity and mortality due to diarrhea diseases.
Health impacts would however be greater in regions where the number of those
not served is high and where the diarrhea disease burden is significant.

In Nigeria the primary responsibilities for water resources development are

vested on government agencies including the Federal Ministry of Water
Resources, State Water Agencies and non government agencies such as
UNICEF. Other government agencies not directly concerned with water
resources development but carry out water resources developments include the
Federal and State Ministries of Agricultures and Environment. These agencies
and private individuals carry out water resources development projects in an
uncoordinated manner with each not taking into considerations the activities of
the other. In most cases quality control and assurances were downplayed with

35
emphasis on number of communities covered rather than water supply system
efficiency. Water Schemes sustainability involving ownership, operation and
maintenance structure are not properly addressed in planning. Consequently
water supply projects benefits are short lived. Despite billions of dollar invested
in water projects, supply is falling behind the demand of a growing population
and development of new sources of water is increasingly becoming capital
intensive. (Okoye, 2015)

In Owerri of Imo State and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri

(FUTO), in particular, a survey of water use showed that students preferred to
drink water from the hand-pumped than the motorized boreholes, because of the
belief that the former are potable because water is pumped directly and did not
need to discharge from ‘contaminated’ overhead tanks (Onyekuru, Nwankwor,
Okeke, Okoye, and Opara, 2017). The existing land-use practices in FUTO
Community and the adjoining areas are residential, agricultural, industrial, and
education, whose wastes are disposed in open dumps and septic tanks. Other
sources of wastes include leaks from petrol dumps, indiscriminate defecations
on bare grounds and effluents from hostels. These contaminant sources are
expected to have adverse effects on groundwater quality (Onyekuru et al.,
2017).

It was therefore required that appropriate management programs be developed

and implemented to minimize the adverse impacts of man’s activities on
groundwater quality, especially in areas of high groundwater vulnerability
(Onyekuru, in Onyekuru et al., 2017). A periodic assessment of the water needs
in FUTO hostels may be an essential aspect of this water management program.
This study was therefore carefully designed to identify the water need potential
of the students in FUTO hostels and more importantly, monitor the trend and

36
the state of the water supply infrastructure for purposes of ascertaining the
present status of water supply condition in and on FUTO hostels residents.

37
 CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

The research design is a broad plan of intention of the researcher to find

answers to the research questions. This study is descriptive survey designed to
determine the water needs of the inhabitants of hostels in FUTO. Firstly, a
reconnaissance survey was carried out to get acquainted with the study area in
other to get first hand and relevant information. Secondly, copies of
Questionnaire were distributed to respondents in the study area. Lastly, the
study analyzed the data using z-test as the statistical tool for hypothesis testing.
All statistical analysis was carried out in Microsoft® Office Excel 2007
(12.04518.1014).

3.2 Sources of Data

3.2.1 Primary Data

Information on hostels residents’ water needs and responsible factors were

sourced through a structured questionnaire, and field observations. The
distribution of copies of the questionnaire was achieved through random
sampling technique. Data requirements addressed from field survey include,
sources of water supply, quantity of water needed per day, quantity of water
consumed per day, distanced travel to fetch water, and time spent in fetching
per day.

38
3.2.2 Secondary Data

Data were collected from published and unpublished materials including

journals, textbooks, and internet and also from the Department of Academic
Planning and Development (AP&D), FUTO.

3.3 Techniques of Data Collection

3.3.1 Questionnaire Survey

The questionnaire consisted of three sections (I, II and III). Section I contained
questions that were based on personal bio-data of the respondents and Section II
was comprised of questions drawn in other to investigate the domestic water
condition in the hostels such as the distance and time it takes to fetch water,
quantity of water needed per day and so on while Section III examined some
common questions relating to the domestic practices of the students such as the
frequency at they take their bath, their alternative source of water and so on.

3.3.2 Direct Observations

The researcher visited the study area at strategic periods and observed the
situation of water supply in other to get first hand information deemed relevant
for the research.

3.3.3 Method of Questionnaire Distribution

3.3.3.1 Systematic Random Sampling Technique

The sampling procedure adopted in the study was the Systematic Random
Sampling Technique. The researcher selected at random 93 rooms out of a total
of 465 rooms. This means that one room out of every five rooms were selected.
Again, the researcher distributed the copies of questionnaire to 227 students

39
representing the sample size at random. This means that one student out of
every three students were given a copy of the questionnaire. Hence, relevant
data on the subject matter were collected through the questionnaire that was
distributed to the students in found in these hostels. The reported explanatory
variables for the prevailing water needs in the hostels are defined and
parameterized in section four of this study.

3.3.4 Sample Frame

According to the figure obtained from the Academic Planning and

Development, the total population of students and staff of FUTO in the
2016/2017 academic session were 26,539 out of which 22,957 were students
(comprising of both Undergraduates and Postgraduates students). The
population of students in the school hostels at the 2016/2017 session were about
4,223.

Therefore, the sample frame for the study was 4,223 (i.e. population of hostels’
residence).

3.3.5 Sample Size

For sample size selection, the Taro Yamani’s formula postulated in 1967 was
used and it is given as:
n = N
1+N (e) 2
Applying the above formula, the sample size for the study was 227.

Hence, 227 copies of questionnaire were distributed to students selected from

93 rooms structured out of 4 hostels that were sampled. All were retrieved and
used for analysis in the study.

3.4 Techniques of Data Analysis

40
The primary data collected was initially edited to detect and correct omissions
and/or errors to ensure consistency and completeness. The analysed data was
presented in the form of descriptive statistics in frequency distribution (mainly
tables). Other descriptive statistical tools used include frequencies, average, and
percentages.

z-test was used to analyze the hypothesis. This was specifically used to test the
relationship between the actual quantity of water consumed and the quantity
required in the study area in other to either reject or accept the stated
hypothesis.

CHAPTER FOUR

41
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.0 Introduction

This chapter shows the presentation and analysis of data as captured from the
questionnaire survey administered to respondents within the study area. The
presentation of data is done in order of the stated objectives of the study, while
the analysis of data is in line with the formulated hypothesis. The hypothesis
was therefore analyzed using the z-test. The choice of this tool was as a result
of the type of data obtained from the survey and the assumption made about the
background population’s water needs.

4.1 Presentation of Results

4.1.1 Gender of Respondents

Table 3: Distribution of the Respondents according to Gender

Gender Frequency Percent

Male 153 67.4
Female 74 32.6
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 3 reveals that one hundred and fifty three (153) of the respondents
representing 67.4% are males while seventy four (74) representing 32.6% are
females. This shows that the majority of the students that stay in FUTO hostels
are males. The data also reveals that there is more number of male hostels than
the female hostels.

4.1.2 Age distribution of Respondents

Table 4: Age distribution of Respondents

42
Age bracket Frequency (No. of Respondents Percent
Less than 18years 26 11.45
19 – 22 years 106 46.7
23 – 26 years 92 40.53
above 26 years 3 1.32
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 4, shows that 11.45% of the total population of the respondents sampled
are less than 18 years of age, while 46.70% are between the ages of 19 years to
22 years; 40.53% fall between 23 years to 26 years while 1.32% of the
population is above the age of 26 years. The result reveals that the bulk of the
populations of students that stay in the hostels are less than 26years and majorly
falls between 19 years and 22years.

4.1.3 Level of education of Respondents

Table 5: Level of education of Respondents

Level of Frequency (No. of Percent

education Respondents)
100 Level 72 31.72
43
200 Level 75 33.04
300 Level 54 23.79
400 Level 6 2.64
500 Level 16 7.05
Postgraduates 4 1.76
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 5 shows the distribution of the respondents according to level of

education. This reveals that 31.72% of the total number of respondents is in
100L (i.e. in their first year). 33.04% is in 200L and 23.79% in 300L while
2.64% and 7.05% are in 400L and 500L respectively. 1.76% represents the
population of respondents who are postgraduate students residing in the hostels.

4.1.4 Hostel distribution of Respondents

Table 6: Hostel distribution of Respondents

Sampled Hostels Frequency (No. of Percent

Respondents)
Hostel B (Male Hostel) 46 20.26
Hostel C (Female 57 25.11
Hostel)
44
Hostel E (Male Hostel) 55 24.23
NDDC Hostel (Mixed) 69 30.4
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 6 shows that among the population of students that were systematically
sampled 20.26% live in Hostel B which is male hostel. 25.11% of the
respondents are from Hostel C (female hostel). 24.23% reside in Hostel E
which is also a male hostel while 30.40% live in NDDC Hostel which by design
is for both genders.

4.1.5 Number of Persons per Room in FUTO Hostels

Table 7: Number of Persons per Room in FUTO Hostels

No. of persons Hostel Frequency Percen

t
less than three NDDC 11 4.85
persons
3 – 5 persons NDDC, PGD 43 18.94
6 – 8 persons Hostels B, C, 152 66.96
45
 E
above 8 persons Hostels B, C, 21 9.25
E
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 7, points out that 66.96% represents more than half of the population of
the study area’s sample size. A percentage that numbered 152 respondents lives
in rooms where the total number of occupants is between six persons to eight
persons. Considering the sizes of these rooms, the result in Table 7 indicates
that most of the rooms in the hostels are over populated. Because hostel
accommodation is limited to a fixed number of persons, one may want to know
the possibility of over population in these hostels. This could be because of lack
of monitoring or poor screening or negligence by the hostels’ administrators.
Moreover, inadequate hostel infrastructure that would adequately accommodate
students comfortably may also be a contributing factor. According to Table 7,
those that live in rooms that have between three persons to five persons are
18.94%. While 4.85% represents those that live in rooms with less than three
persons. 9.25% represents those with above eight persons in a room thereby
revealing the condition of overcrowding in some of these hostels with
implications on water supply, students’ health, and academic performances.

4.1.6 Sources of Water Supply in FUTO Hostels

In other to ascertain the main source of water in the hostels, the researcher
looked into different sources of water available in the hostels. The sources
include -Borehole, Hand pumps and Rain water. This is explained in Table 8.

Table 8: Sources of domestic water in FUTO Hostels

46
 Source of water supply Frequency of Responses Percent
Borehole 68 29.95
Hand pumps 109 48.02
Rain water 50 22.03
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

According to the analysis in Table 8, Hand pump as source of water supply is

rated 48.02% while 29.95% of the total number of respondents admitted that
source of water is borehole. Others that specified rainwater as other source of
water supply were about 22.03%. Therefore, the researcher was able to
ascertain that the major source of water in the study area is hand pumps. From
the responses, it was gathered that boreholes in the area are electrically operated
while the hand pumps are mechanically operated with submersible pumps
available within the hostels.

Plate 1: Picture of a female student fetching water from hand pump

47
Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018.

4.1.7 Distance travelled by respondents to fetch water

Table 9: Distance travelled by respondents to fetch water

Distance (in meters) Frequency (No. Percent Average

of Respondents) distance
Less than 10 101 44.49 1010
10 – 50 66 29.07 1980
50 – 100 34 14.98 2550
above 100 26 11.45 2660
Total 227 100 7900

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Based on the data presented in Table 9, 44.49% of the respondents access water
just within the sphere of 10 meters. 29.07% travel about 10 meters to 50 meters
in other to get water while 14.98% claim that they travel a distance between 50
meters to 100 meters in other to get access to water. Moreover, 11.45% of the

48
respondent travel above 100 meters to access water. However, the average
distance travelled to fetch water is about 34.80 meters. This indicates that there
is presence of water supply facility within the hostels but there may be
possibilities that they do not meet up with water demand.

Plate 2: Picture of students from Hostel C in search of water outside

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

49
4.1.8 Amount of time (in minuets) spent in fetching water

Table 10: Amount of time (in minuets) spent in fetching water

Time Frequency (No. Percent Average time

of Respondents)
less than 10 mins 17 7.49 170
10 – 20 mins 109 48.02 1635
20- 40 mins 67 29.52 2010
above 40 mins 34 14.98 1360
Total 227 100 5175

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 10 shows that 48.02% of the respondents spend about 10 minutes to 20

minutes in other to fetch water. 29.52% of respondents on the other hand, spend
much more time in fetching water (i.e. between 20 minutes to 40 minutes) than
the previous set. However, the situation is not favorable to the 14.98% of
respondents that spend above 40 minutes to get water. While about 7.49% of
the respondents, (representing 17 persons out of 227 that were sampled) spend
50
less than 10minutes to get water. This indicates that there is possibility of water
supply deficiency within the hostels either in the form of low pressure of water,
or inadequate/malfunctioning of water supply facilities or overcrowding of

water supply facilities.

Plate 3: Picture of students on queue at night waiting for water in Hostel B

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

51
4.1.9 Amount of Water Consumed per Day by Respondents

Table 11: Amount of Water Consumed per Day by Respondents

Quantity Frequency (No. of Percent Average amount in

of water Respondents) liters
(liters)
Below 25 39 17.18 1014
25 - 50 124 54.63 9300
50 - 75 48 21.15 6000
Above 75 16 7.05 1200
Total 227 100 17514

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

From the Table 11, it is only about 16 students (7.05%) out of 227 that were
sampled have access to water in an amount that is above 75 liters per day.
However, 48 respondents representing 21.15% receive water in an amount that
is between 50 liters to 75 liters for their daily water needs. While, 124 students
that is about 54.63% asserted that the amount of water they receive per day is
between 25 liters to 50 liters (which is relatively low when compared to the
amount they actually need). Moreover, about 39 students (17.18% of the total
sample size) claimed that they receive water in a very low amount, which is
usually below 25 liters. The average is about 77.15 liters and is below the
World Health Organization (WHO) standard, which recommended the
minimum of 113-120 per capita per head of water consumption rate. This shows
that water consumption level in the study area is still below standard.

52
4.1.10 Amount of Water Needed per Day

Table 12: Amount of Water Needed per Day

Quantity of water Frequency (No. Percen Average Quantity

(liters) of Respondents) t of water needed in
liters
Below 25 0 0.00 0
25 - 50 25 11.01 1875
50 - 75 87 38.33 10875
Above 75 115 50.66 8625
Total 227 100 21375

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

In Table 12, out of 227 respondents, no respondent is in need of water below 25

liters of water. This is represented by 0%. 25 respondents representing 11.01%
need about 25 liters to 50 liters of water per day, while 38.33% of the total
number of respondents needs between 50 liters to 75 liters of water per day. On
the other hand, 115 respondents representing 50.66% are in need of above 75
liters of water per day. It is noteworthy that the water needs here includes
drinking, cleaning, washing, bathing and other domestic activities. It was
discovered from the data generated that many students (i.e. above 50% of the
sample size) are in need of about 75 liters of water and above per day in other to
accommodate their daily domestic activities and personal hygiene. This
indicates that water needs in FUTO hostels is above 75 liters per day.

53
Therefore, the deficiency in water consumption is thus, calculated;

Amount needed – Amount consumed

i.e. 21375 – 17514 = 3861 liters

The difference shows that there is a deficiency of 17514 liters of water required
to be consumed in hostels in FUTO.

54
4.1.11 Borehole/Hand-pump Break Down in the past one year

Table 13: Borehole/Hand-pump Break Down in the past one year

Frequency (No. of Percent

Respondents)
Once in two week 0 0
Once in a month 0 0
Once in three 76 33.48
months
Once in six months 84 37
Once a year 67 29.52
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 13, shows that 33.48% of the respondents asserted that the borehole/hand
pumps breaks down at least once in three months. 37% of the respondents
claimed at least once in six months while, 29.52% said at least once in a year.
However, no responses were gathered on whether the available water facilities
in the hostels break down once in a month or in two weeks in the past one year.
Table 13 reveals that the water supply facilities within the hostels may possibly
break down at least once in a semester (i.e. about three to four month).

55
4.1.12 Time taken to fix the boreholes/hand pumps when they break
down

Table 14: Time taken to fix the boreholes/hand pumps are when they break
down

Period Frequency (No. of Percen

Respondents) t
Same day 0 0
Within two days 0 0
Within one week 7 3.08
Above one week 220 96.92
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

From Table 14, there is no response on whether the water pumps are fixed in a
day or within two days if they break down. The researcher gathered that a
greater percentage of the respondents (96.92%) asserted that it takes more than
a week to fix or repair the boreholes/hand pumps when they breakdown. This
indicates that the response of the hostel administrators towards the maintenance
of water supply facilities is quite not encouraging. It shows that the hostels are
been neglected. This may have implications on students’ health and academic
performances as they may have to get water from other sources, spend more
time and travel longer distances or may even be stranded. However, 3.08% of
the respondents indicated that the water facilities are fixed within a week.

4.1.13 Major Causes of Borehole/Hand pump Break Down

56
Table 15: Major Causes of Borehole/Hand pump Breakdown in the Hostels

Causes of breakdown Frequency (No. of Percen

Respondents) t
over use 87 33.48
Low quality of water facility 89 34.8
poor maintenance 84 22.47
Others (vandalism) 34 9.25
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

From Table 15, it was observed that 33.48% of the respondents agreed that
overuse of the water supply facilities is the factor responsible for the facility
breakdown. 34.80% claimed that poor infrastructure is the reason for
breakdown of the water pumps. 22.47% attributed breakdown of water facilities
in the hostels to poor maintenance while 9.25% of the respondents indicated
other reasons such as vandalism, carelessness, wear and tear, and expiration of
construction materials or dilapidation. From the analysis in Table 15, there is an
indication that all the factors mentioned affect water supply and the degree of
consumption in all the hostels in the study area.

4.1.14 Frequency of Water Supply

Table 16: Frequency of Water Supply in the Hostels

57
Period Frequency (No. of Percen
Respondents) t
More than once a day 23 10.13
Once a day 200 88.11
Once in two days 4 1.76
Once a week 0 0
Total 227 100

Source: Author’s Field Work, 2018

Table 16 reveals that 88.11% of the total number of respondents asserted that
water provision is once per day, while 10.13% claimed that the frequency at
which water is supplied is more than once a day. However, 1.76% specified that
supply is once in two days. The analysis done in this section shows that the
frequency at which water is been provided in the hostels may be inadequate.

4.2 Hypothesis Testing

One hypothesis was formulated and tested in this study.

Hypothesis:

58
 H0: The quantity of water needed by students is not significantly different from
the quantity of water currently consumed by these students

H1: The quantity of water needed by students is significantly different from the
quantity of water currently consumed by these students

The test of hypothesis was done using z-test with the aid of Table 17 and Table
18. The analysis involved the difference between the average (mean) quantity
of water currently consumed and the average (mean) quantity of water required
to be consumed or needed by hostel residents in FUTO.

x (Quantity
needed in
liters) f Fx (X-x)2 f(X-x)2
0 0 0 76456539 0
1875 25 46875 47182378 1179559448
10875 87 946125 4541404 395102142.5
8625 115 991875 14147.44 1626955.284
∑ X=¿ ¿213 ∑ f =¿ ¿2 ∑ fx=¿ ¿ ∑ ( X −x)²=¿ ¿ ∑ f ( x ) ²=¿ ¿
75 27 1984875 128194468 1576288546

Table 17: z-test Analysis for x (Quantity needed)

Source: Author’s Field Survey, 2018

y (Quantity
consumed
in liters) f fy (Y-y)2 f(Y-y)2
1014 39 39546 1028196 40099644
9300 124 1153200 86490000 10724760000
6000 48 288000 36000000 1728000000
1200 16 19200 1440000 23040000
∑ y=¿ ¿175 ∑ f =¿ ¿2 ∑ fy =¿ ¿ ∑ (Y − y) ²=¿ ¿ ∑ f ( Y − y ) ²=¿ ¿
14 27 1499946 124958196 12515899644
59
Table 18: z-test Analysis for y (Quantity consumed)

Source: Author’s Field Survey, 2018

The z-test model is given as:

Xµ−Yµ
Z=
SD x

Decision Rule:

Reject the null hypothesis if the z-calculated is greater than the z-critical.
Otherwise, do not reject H0.

Since the calculated value of Z (6.714) is greater than the critical value of Z
(± 1.96), the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative hypothesis was
accepted.

Conclusion:

The quantity of water needed by students is significantly different from the

quantity of water currently consumed by these students in FUTO hostels.

4.3 Discussion

4.3.1 Population Characteristics of FUTO Hostels’ Residents

According to the data presented in Table 3, the bulk of the students residing in
FUTO hostels are males. This is an indication that the majority of the students
admitted into the university per year are males which equally suggest that males
are most likely to be technologically inclined than females (browse and include
citation). This result is in line with the findings of Ardies, Sven De Maeyer,
Gijbels, Hanno van Keulen (2014). They gathered that not only are females less
60
interested in technology and technological careers, this interest also declines
faster than for boys. Hoffman in Ardies et al., (2014) found similar results. He
concluded that from the age of 10 the level of interest in technology starts to
decline, and especially for females. Table 6 thus revealed that more hostels are
dedicated to the male folks (this is about 57.14% of the total number of hostels)
to accommodate their large numbers. The idea is logically sound since there is
more number of males than females. The male hostels in the study area include
Hostels A, B, E and PGD Hostel. However, hostels C and D are female hostels,
while NDDC Hostel is for both genders.
As presented in Table 4, the population of students that live in hostels are
majorly between the ages of 19 years and 22years. The levels of students that
fall between this age brackets are mostly new students who are likely to be in
100L or at most in 200L. On a general note, this suggests that there is a
behavioral trend among students. They tend to migrate away from the hostels
once they advance in level of education (Table 5). This behavior is similar to
the postulates of Burgess’s concentric zone theory of 1925. Table 7 revealed
that some of the hostels are over-crowded with more number of persons than
they can accommodate. As indicated earlier, this condition has implications on
water supply, students’ health, and academic performances.
However, in this research work, the author considered the effect of these
population characteristics on water supply in the study. Abubakar (2017)
suggested that household size, number of rooms and occupancy of such rooms
alongside other factors are significantly associated to the type of household
sanitation facility which is greatly influenced by water supply. Likewise Idowu,
Sojobi and Galkaye Nkemdirim (2017), also attributed challenges faced in
public water supply in most cities and developing countries to increasing
population size. Okoroigwe, and Alozie (2017) specifically carried out a
research to determine the environmental, systemic and human factors (of which
population characteristics plays a role) responsible for water supply situation in
61
Abia State. In their study, they found the mean household size of 7 people
which is at variance with the national household mean of 5 people per
household. This is similar to the population characteristics of this study. It may
be that the average of eight students per room in the hostels is also at variance
to the national household mean of five people. According to Table 1, the
numbers of students packing into the hostels keep increasing per year without
any provision been made in terms of infrastructure and water facilities to
support them. It is based on such conditions that Bashier, Bashir, Mohamadani,
Elamin and Abdelrahman (2015) rooted their argument in a research they
carried out in Gezira State, Sudan, that the challenge of securing future water
supply for an increasing population requires continued efforts to satisfy the
future needs. Their result gave that the population of Gezira State is increasing
by 14% from 2008 to 2014 that of FUTO is on an average of 2.28%.

4.3.2 Main Source of Water Supply in FUTO Hotels

Bhakara et al., (2015) in the study of an Indian university campus gathered that
groundwater is the only source of water supply providing 2.05 million liters of
fresh water per day. This is similar to the source of water in FUTO hostels.

As presented in Table 8, the researcher gathered that borehole and hand pumps
are the major sources of water supply in FUTO hostels. These sources provide
water for both drinking and other uses to the students. This result is in contrast
to the result of Oyeniyi et al., (2016) in a study they carried out on urban and
rural areas of Osun state, which revealed that villagers source their drinking
water mainly from rivers. Moreover, Hassan, Hayatu, and Mohammed (2016)
opined that both boreholes and pipe borne water supply facilities used for
drinking water supplies can deliver contaminated water, if adequate quality
provisions are not effectively considered. Chukwuma (2017) reported that
greater percentage of the respondents interviewed in his study on the rural areas
62
of Enugu state rely on private boreholes for their water needs, while others
depend on water vendors, streams, rivers, unlined and unprotected wells,
harvested and stored rain water. He further stated that these other sources of
water are contamination-prone. The study of Ngah and Abam (2016) concluded
that water supply sources utilizing groundwater offer the best water quality in
the area. More boreholes should be drilled for domestic water supply. Water
supply from streams and springs are not potable in their untreated state and the
quality of water delivered by commercial water vendors using motorized and
manual water tankers and plastic cans fall far below the recommended
standards for human consumption (Ngah et al., 2016).

Based on the suggestion of Hassan et al., (2016) it may be that the sources of
water in FUTO hostels are contaminated but this aspect is not covered in the
scope of this research work. However, the researcher observed that the borehole
are electrically operated which means that the availability of water is solely
dependent on electricity. The major source of electric power supply to the
hostels is the fossil fuel generator which is operated once per day during the
night hours. This means that the boreholes are also operated whenever the
generator is switched on; limiting the period that water would be available to
night time only (Table 7). In this regard, Bhakara, Sihaga, Gieschenb,
Andrewb, Herrmannb, et al., (2015) revealed that ground water extraction and
its supply consume a lot of energy thereby increasing the environmental impact
of the water supply.

4.3.3 Access to Water Supply Facility (A measure of Distance and

Time to Water Supply Facility)

Peprah, Oduro-Ofori and Asante-Wusu (2015) opined that access to drinking

water means that the source is less than one kilometre away from its place of
use and that it is possible to reliably obtain at least 20 liters per member of a
63
household per day. The government of Rwanda under the National Water
Supply Policy in 2016 provided that access to safe water supply is the percent
of people with access to an improved source of drinking water within 500
metres in rural areas and 200 metres in urban areas. This access should be
reliable and affordable, and provide an adequate quantity (minimum 20
liters/person/day in rural and 80 liters/person/day in urban areas) within a
reasonable amount of time. Kaushik in Peprah et al., (2015) identified the
meaning of accessibility to distance and time involved in obtaining water
infrastructure. He further added that physical accessibility to water and
sanitation infrastructure refers to the ease at which safe and adequate water and
sanitation facilities are within the physical reach of all segments of the
population at their immediate or within the vicinity in terms of distance and
time.

As identified by Jones, et al., contained in Peprah et al., (2015) physical

accessibility to water infrastructure implies the use of less time spent in
identifying the infrastructure leading to the saving of time for every household
to spend on other productive activities such as cooking and cleaning. In
defining accessibility to water infrastructure, Woodhouse in Peprah et al.,
(2015) argues that accessibility to water infrastructure could be looked at both
the community level and individual level: physical accessibility to water
infrastructure at the community level is the capacity of the water facilities to
provide sufficient, safe and regular water; have a sufficient number of water
outlets to avoid prohibitive waiting times; reasonable distance from the
household; and there is equitable distribution of all available water facilities and
services. On the other hand, at the individual level, physical access to water
infrastructure refers to the ease at which individuals have access to the
minimum essential amount of water that is sufficient and safe for personal and
domestic uses to prevent disease and avoidance of personal insecurity.

64
Sufficiency, quality, physical security during access and regularity are thus,
important indicators of physical accessibility to water.

Based on the analysis presented in Table 9, the researcher observed that water
supply facilities in the hostels are close enough to users. Therefore, distance is
not considered as a factor affecting the current state of water supply in these
hostels. Students do not have to travel for long or spend much time doing so in
other to access a water facility. In other words, it can be asserted that the water
supply facilities in FUTO hostels are accessible. Hence, one would want to
know the reason behind the exorbitant amount of time spent in accessing water
from these sources (Table 10). As earlier stated, the situation is not favorable to
about 14.98% of respondents that spend above 40 minutes to get water.
In this regard, Nygren, O'Reilly, Rajasingham, Omore, Ombok, Awuor, et al.,
(2016) asserted that water fetching times greater than 30 minutes increases risk
of diarrheal disease. Gonzales and Ajami (2015) viewed access to portable
water in terms of sustainability of the water utility which is the ability to access
reliable supplies to consistently satisfy current needs, make responsible use of
supplies, and have the capacity to adapt to future scenarios.
Based on these past results, by every indication, there may be possibility of
water supply deficiency in the hostels blamed on overcrowding of the facilities
(Table 7) with possible implications on health of the students directly affected.
This is in line with Adesogan (2014) who revealed in his study on providing
adequate and affordable potable water in rural areas of Nigeria that in Africa
and of course in Nigeria, that one-half of the entire continent’s people
(particularly in rural areas/communities), suffers from one or more of the six
main diseases associated with poor or polluted water. Statistics show that Africa
has the highest occurrence of cholera and typhoid epidemics as well as child
diarrhea. Of the 46 countries in which schistosomiasis are endemic, 40 are in
Africa, of the 19 countries reporting guinea worm, 16 are in Africa.

65
Grossi, Klimschak, Rechenburg, Shinee and Schmoll (2016) also identified one
of the major challenges in Pan-European Countries as access to safe drinking
water.

4.3.4 Water Consumption

Section 4.1.9 revealed the deficiency in the amount of water consumption in

FUTO hostels which implies that many students are not consuming as required
or as they ought to. The researcher observed that the major water uses in the
study area is for laundry, bathing and flushing.

Ohwo et al., (2014) in the analyses of the quantity of water supply in Yenagoa
opined that in spite of the proliferations of wells and boreholes, and the short
distances to sources of major water supply, 29.28% of respondents they
sampled used below 20 liters of water per capita per day. This is similar in
FUTO hostels where water supply facilities are provided yet water deficiency
still persist. However, they attributed the condition to the high cost of water
supply in relation to the monthly minimum national wage. Nkemdirim et al.,
(2017) gathered that the per-capita consumption of water in Abia State is 40.9
liters per person per day with a deviation of 74.1 liters. They added that the
deficiency in potable water supply from the 3 period of 2004 – 2012 (period of
data availability) stood at 237,011,294.5m. Nevertheless, in Gezira State,
Sudan, Bashier et al., (2015) reported that the current water consumption rates
are 22.5 liters and 55liters per capita per day for rural and urban population,
respectively. Mohammad et al., (2017) found that in Kandahar City,
Afghanistan, the average domestic water consumption at household level is
59liters per capita per day (lpcd) with the major components of water
consumption to include washing clothes, taking bath, sanitation and kitchen.
Likewise, Udmale, Ishidaira, Raj Thapa and Shakya (2016) estimated that in
Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, there is a supply deficit of 102 million liters per day
66
(MLD) in 2016, after completion of the first phase of the Melamchi Water
Supply Project (MWSP).

In the same regard, Aho, Akpen and Ivue (2016) identified seven variables that
influence residential per capita water consumption significantly. These include
level of education, gender, kitchen type, number of cars, and well as a source
were positively significant while, household size and number of children below
6 years influence the per capita water demand negatively.

Having access to water supply with adequate quantities is very important in

determining physical accessibility to water. Though what constitutes a
minimum water quantity is fraught with difficulties, it has been argued against
the back drop of some compelling factors that certain quantities of litres of
water are needed for the enhancement of healthy living (Peprah et al., 2015).
For instance, issue such as gender and other daily activities like domestic water
use, namely consumption (drinking and cooking), and hygiene (personal) are to
be established before the desirable quantities needed by a person per day could
be determined (Hutton and Bartram, in Peprah et al., 2015). While WHO
(2003) asserts that, consuming less than 50 litres of water per person a day has
high health consequences, and thus the ideal minimum quantities of water
should range between 50 litres and over 100 litres per person a day; Gleick,
contained in Peprah et al., (2015) argues that 50 litres per capita per day is the
basic water requirement for domestic water supply.

Peprah et al., 2015 revealed that 69% of individual members within the
sampled households consumed about 29 litres of water per day from the various
sources of water available to them. Additionally, 26% consumed between 30
and 36 litres of water while the remaining 5% of household members consumed
between 36 litres and 42 litres of water. Their research established that
approximately 5% of the households barely met the 40 litres minimum water
67
requirements while the remaining 95% fell short of the daily average water
requirements. The statistics given shows that the average daily water
requirement of 40 litres per person per day proposed by the Ghana Water
Company, in the case of Ghana, was not met in the Municipality GWCL.

Consequently, the assertions of Peprah et al., (2015) are most likely to be

applicable in the case of FUTO hostels’ residents. Basic personal hygiene and
domestic activities such as cooking and washing are likely to be impaired in the
hostels since the minimum quantity of water needed for the realisation of such
activities is below the established standards.

4.3.5 Water Needs in FUTO

Observations have shown that the development of adequate water supply

infrastructure and facilities have been the ultimate need of the residents in the
university hostels as this will equally improve sanitation. Unfortunately, in spite
of the university management’s expressions of commitments to alleviating the
low level of access to potable water supply in hostels by overseeing the
construction of boreholes in some of the hostels to complement the ageing and
over-depended hand pump, yet convenience rate is still low. Interestingly, going
out from the hostels to source for water from friends’ lodges and attend to
certain domestic needs have rather become the main resolution. This research
work revealed that, nobody is in need of less than 25 liters of water per day in
the school hostels. It has been established earlier in section 4.1.10 that the water
needs of these students ranges from domestic activities of various kinds and
nature to personal hygiene.

68
4.3.5.1 The Problems Affecting the Daily Water Needs of the Residents
in FUTO Hostels

Problems faced with water supply in the hostels in FUTO take diverse forms
including quantity, irregularity, and shortage.

Nevertheless, the above statement is similar to the findings of Adeleye et al.,

(2014). They discovered that the problems of poor water supply and sanitation
often leave most women and children on queues for several hours and those that
cannot endure are forced to travel long miles in search for alternative source of
water, which may not be fit for drinking. Chukwu (2015) attributed the
challenges facing sustainable water supply management in the Niger delta
wetland to lack of effective compliance to policies, fragmented responsibility,
poor state of infrastructure, corruption, and low rate of costs recovery.

The study of Enefiok and Ekong (2014) identified lack of maintenance, lack of
community participation, lack of coordination and co-operation among the
stakeholders, political factor, inefficient monitoring, and poor attitude towards
public property to be the factors responsible for the incommensurate rural water
situation in Akwa Ibom State. Their result is somehow related to that of this
study. Oyeniyi et al., (2016) on their comparative analysis of safe water and
sanitation in selected urban and rural areas of Osun state, Nigeria focused
majorly on the quality of water of which they attributed poor quality of drinking
water discovered in their study area to poor sanitation. Abubakar (2017)
however opined that access to electricity, type of water source and size of room
are one of the major factors affecting water needs in Nigerian households.
Moreover, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of
Research and Development (ORD) has a dedicated research program focused
on addressing the challenges it identified which includes biological and
chemical contaminants; aging water-system infrastructure; demands from the
69
 energy, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors; population change; climate
change; extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves,
drought, wildfire); and homeland security events. Nevertheless, these factors
they identified are quite different from the prevailing factors responsible for
poor state of water in FUTO hostels.

Furthermore, the paper of Abu et al., (2016) evaluated the situation and
challenges of rural water supply in Nigeria. He identified the challenges in
governance, government policies and priorities as responsible for poor service
delivery. Poor governance; in form of poor administration of the hostels was
also identified as a factor contributing to water supply issues in FUTO.

Rabiu and Mainul (2016) argued that the issue of no regular supply of water to
the male hostels in Bayero University, Kano State, Nigeria is the main cause of
poor sanitation in those hostels. Rácz (2015) attributed the problem of water
supply in Budapest to the exposure of water to great stain. However, his finding
has no relevance to the state water needs in FUTO hostels.

The scenario in FUTO hostels may be indicative that the water supply situation
in the study area needs to be improved to alleviate the suffering of students that
live in these hostels.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Summary of Findings

The following are the major findings of this study;

i. The number of persons per room in most of the hostels is above the
recommended number of eight persons presented by the university

70
 administration. This has resulted to over population and overcrowding of water
supply facilities and on the other hand, has poor sanitation implications.
ii. Hand pumps and boreholes are the main source of water supply in the
study area. Notwithstanding, 50.66% of the respondents expressed their
dissatisfaction in assessing the amount of water they need per day. This
situation is blamed on poor water supply facilities and poor maintenance
culture.
iii. Boreholes are not built in all the hostels. Therefore, some of the students in
the hostels where there is no borehole depend solely on hand pump and go out
of their hostels in search of water from other hostels.
iv. There are limited numbers of water taps/pumps available at the hostels.
There is only one hand pump at each hostel complemented by 4 boreholes
taps. But in most cases, the hand pumps are mostly used by students
(48.02%).
v. The average distance travelled in other to access water in the hostels is
56.26 meters.
vi. A total of 14.98% of the respondents spend above 40 minutes to fetch
water, and return to their hostels. This situation is quite alarming because it
causes domestic and/or social violence and is blamed on frequency of
pumping water.
vii. It takes a lot of time (in most cases; the rest of the academic semester) to
fix a fault or restore water whenever there is breakdown of water supply
facility.
viii. The quantities of water needed for consumption per day by the students
living in FUTO hostels are not commensurately supplied to them. There is a
deficiency of 18.06% representing 3861 liters of water required to be
consumed.
ix. The regularity of supplying water through borehole is once per day. This is
because borehole sumo is electrically operated and electricity is provided only
71
 at night hours for about four hours each night. This implies that getting water
is a night affair in the hostels.

5.2 Conclusion

This study has tried to assess water needs in hostels in Federal University of
Technology, Owerri (FUTO).

Water is needed to a large extent for the sustenance of humans and most of their
productive activities as contained in the Millennium Development Goals.
However the currently state of water supply in FUTO hostels has for long
reached its crisis point with its resultant hardship on students living there. The
road to the achievement of the water needs in FUTO is yet far and may not be
attained owing to the poor and inefficient state of water facilities to meet the
current capacity of the students’ population and as well as the water
management strategy the university has adopted. A lot of work needs to be
carried out to meet this capacity requirement of water needs in FUTO hostels.

It is clear that every human being has the need for water as been basic no matter
the geographical location. This implies that the natural right of human equality
also applies to the satisfaction of water needs of the citizens whether in school
hostels or outside, urban areas or rural areas. This right qualifies all humans for
the realization of their needs; the need for water inclusive.

This research work has further provided the understanding of population (in
terms of the numbers of persons depending upon a particular water facility, and
effect of the type of water supply facility and infrastructure in water provision.
It also established the gap created by the incidence of water scarcity due to the
erratic nature of main sources of water in FUTO hostels and how best to fill the
gap in the use of alternative or complementary means. In addition, the study
pointed out the application of water relevant information such as establishing
72
 the evolutional trend of water needs for a period of ten years (i.e. years 2007 to
year 2017). This will aid in launching designs, principles, and set goals towards
achieving water needs requirements of the students living in FUTO hostels.

5.3 Recommendations

Based on the above research findings, this study made the following
recommendations;
i. More hostels should be constructed in other to accommodate more
students.
ii. There should be proper maintenance of the hand pumps and borehole such
that will ensure efficiency. Moreover, good quality materials should be
provided.
iii. The Otammiri River passing through the campus should be harnessed
instead of digging more boreholes. Hence, all hostels will be reticulated,
letting students have access to treated water in required amount/quantity.
iv. More water taps should be constructed in other to ease overuse and
pressure on the few that are in existence.
v. The hostels should be properly reticulated. This suggests that there will be
more water taps at closer distances thereby reducing the average distance
travelled in other to get water.
vi. Pumping of water should not be once per day and should not be only at
night. This will ensure regular supply of water at all times.
vii. There should be a water caretaker in all the hostels dedicated to certain
responsibilities. This will ensure orderliness and effective management of
responsibilities such as ensuring orderliness, regular pumping of water, and
detecting faults, thus, offer quick or immediate response or call for assistance
once there is fault in water supply facility in the hostel.

73
viii. The researcher has proposed for more water storage facilities such as more
tanks. This will ensure that water is stored and supply at large quantities.
ix. The university management should adopt modern technologies such as the
use of solar panels to generate electricity instead of depending on generators
that use fossil fuel. This will not only reduce amount of money spent on
purchasing fuel but will equally reduce environment degradation caused by
the use of fossil fuel but will also ensure steady supply of electricity. Hence,
water will be pumped regularly and sanitation will also be improved.

5.4 Suggestions for Further Research

The scope of this study was limited to water needs in FUTO hostels. However,
the subject matter is a broad one. Therefore, the researcher was unable to cover
certain aspects and thus suggested that this study should be broadened to
encompass test to determine the quality of water consumed by students residing
in FUTO hostels and that the study should also be expanded to cover the area of
health implication of water quality in FUTO hostels and thus determine health-
seeking behavior of the students. Also, further research should be carried out to
include the cost implication of improving the standard of water delivery and
quality in the university hostels. Finally, comprehensive research should be

74
 carried out in all the hostels in Nigerian universities in other to determine their
water needs and areas that need improvement.

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APPENDICES

82
 Appendix 1

QUESTIONNAIRE ON WATER NEEDS IN FUTO HOSTELS

Department of Urban and Regional Planning,

School of Environmental Sciences,

Federal University of Technology Owerri,

P.M.B 1526, Owerri,

Imo State.

September, 2018.

83
 Dear Respondent,
I am AZUBUIKE UGOCHUKWU DAVID C, a 500L student in Federal University of Technology,
Owerri, in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, carrying out a research on “WATER NEEDS
IN FUTO HOSTELS”. I hereby require some information from you to enable me complete my research work.
I assure you that this is purely an academic work and all information provided will be treated with great
confidentiality.
General Instruction: Please tick [ √ ] in the most appropriate responses and fill in the blank spaces where
necessary.
Section I. Demographic Questions

1. Gender of respondent (a) Male (b) Female

2. What is your age bracket? (a) less than 18years (b) 19 – 22years (c) 23 – 26years (d) above 26years

3. Are you in what level? (a) Year one (b) Year two (c) Year three (d) Year four and above

4. What is the name of your hostel? ____________________________

5. What is the number of persons in your room? (a) less than three (b) 3 – 5 persons (c) 6 – 8 persons (d) above 8
persons
Section II. Domestic Water

6. Which of the following sources of domestic water are available in your hostel? (Multiple responses are possible)
(a) Borehole/ hand pump (b)Public tap (c)Well (d) Other

7. What is your main source of water? (Single response) (a) Borehole (b) Hand pump (c) Open well (d) Other
specify

8. How far (in meters) is the source that you use? (a) Less than 10 meters (b) 10 – 50 meters (c) 50 – 100 meters (d)
above 100 meters

9. How long (in minutes) does it take to queue up, fetch water and return to your room? (a) less than 10mins (b) 10 –
20mins (c) 20- 40mins (d) above 40mins

10. How much domestic water (in litres) do you consume each day? (a) below 25litres ( b) 25 – 50litres (c) 50 –
75litres (d) above 75litres

11. How much water do you need in a day? (a) below 25litres ( b) 25 – 50litres (c) 50 – 75litres (d) above 75litres

12. How frequently has the borehole/ hand pump broken down during the past one year (a) Once a week (b)
Once in two weeks (c) Once a quarter (d) Once in six months (e) Once a year

13. How promptly is the pump fixed when it breaks down? (a) same day (b) within two days (c) within one week
(d) above one week

14. What is the major cause of break down? (a) over use (b) poor infrastructure (c) poor maintenance (d) others

84
15. What is the frequency (regularity) of water supply? (a) More than once a day (b) Once a day (c) Once in two
days (d) Once a week

16. How often do you like to get water? (a) More than once a day (b) Once a day (c) once in two days (d) Other

17. What do you need water most for? (a) Shower (b) Flushing toilet (c) Washing (d) Others

18. On the days that you get water, how many hours do you usually get water for? (a) less than 10mins (b) 10 –
20mins (c) 20- 40mins (d) above 40mins

19. What is the availability of water in your hostel in a semester? (a) Highly available (b) Available (c) Low (d)
Very low
Section III: Common Questions
22. How regular do you take your bath? (a) Once in two days (b) Once a day (c) Twice a day (d)
Multiple times a day
23. Is there shower provision in your Hostel? (a)Yes (b) No
24. If yes, how long does the shower last? (a) Less than 10mins (b) 10 – 20mins (c) 20 - 30mins (d) above
40mins
25. What is your alternative when there is no water in your hostel?
______________________________________
26. Generally, what is the quality of water you receive? (a) Good (b) Moderate (c) Poor (d) Very poor
27. Do you pay for water in your hostel? (a) Yes (b) No
28. How much do you pay for water in a semester? (a) less than N100 (b) N100 – N200 (c) N200 – N400 (d)
Above N400
29. How often do you make complaints about your domestic water service in the past one year? (a) Very
often (b) often (c) Rarely (d) Never
30. What was the result of the complaint? (a) Prompt action taken (b) Delayed action taken (c) No action
taken
31. Overall, are you satisfied with your domestic water service? (a) Highly Satisfied (b) Satisfied (c)
Dissatisfied (d) Highly dissatisfied
33. Based on Q33 above, what are the reasons for your answer? (List up to three)
(a) _____________________________________________________
(b) _____________________________________________________
(c) _____________________________________________________
32. How would you rate the existing water supply service? (a) Excellent (b) Very good (c) Good (d) Bad
Why? ____________________________________________________
33. Which of the following aspects of your water supply do needs improvement in the future?
(Multiple responses are possible)

 Water Quality

 Pressure Rate

85
 Reliability

 Service quality

 Maintenance

 Others specify ______________________

Appendix 2

Selection of sample size:

Taro Yamani’s formula:

n = N
1+N (e) 2

Where;

n = sample size,

N= sample frame,

86
e = level of significance (error limit),

1= unity (constant).

Note: This formula used the official number of persons allocated to rooms in
the hostels = (8 persons per room)

Therefore:

N = 4223/8

= 527

Now; n =? N = 527 e = 0.05

Substituting the values:

n = 527/ (1+527 (0.05) 2)

n = 527/1+1.3175

n = 527/2.3175

n = 227.400 ≈ 277 persons

Therefore 227 is the sample size.

87
 Appendix 3

z-test calculation

x (Quantity
needed in liters) f Fx (X-x)2 f(X-x)2
0 0 0 76456539 0
1875 25 46875 47182378 1179559448
10875 87 946125 4541404 395102142.5
8625 115 991875 14147.44 1626955.284
∑ X=¿ ¿21375 ∑ f =¿ ¿227 ∑ fx=¿ ¿ ∑ (X −x) ²=¿ ¿ ∑ f ( x ) ²=¿ ¿
1984875 128194468 1576288546

y (Quantity
consumed
in liters) f Fy (Y-y)2 f(Y-y)2
1014 39 39546 1028196 40099644
9300 124 1153200 86490000 10724760000
6000 48 288000 36000000 1728000000
1200 16 19200 1440000 23040000
∑ y=¿ ¿175 ∑ f =¿ ¿2 ∑ fy =¿ ¿ ∑ (Y − y) ²=¿ ¿ ∑ f ( Y − y ) ²=¿ ¿
14 27 1499946 124958196 12515899644

The z-test model is given as:

Xµ−Yµ
Z=
SD x

Where X µ = mean of y

Y µ = mean of x

SDx = Standard error of difference between means

88
But mean =

x=
∑ fx
∑f

Substituting values for mean of x;

∑ fx = 1984875

∑f = 227

1984875
Mean of x (required) = 227
= 8743.943

Substituting values for mean of y;

∑ fy = 1499946

∑f = 227

1499946
Mean of y (required) = 227
= 6607.692

Standard Deviation is given as;

∑ f ( X−x ) ²
S=
√ ∑f

Substituting values for the Standard Deviation of x;

∑ f ( X−x ) ²= 1576288546

∑ f =¿ ¿ 227

1576288546
Standard Deviation of x =
√ 227
= 2635.148

89
Substituting values for the Standard Deviation of y;

∑ f ( Y − y ) ²= 2604719014

∑ f =¿ ¿ 227

2604719014
Standard Deviation of y =
√ 227
= 3387.41

Computing for the z-test;

Xµ−Yµ
Z=
SD x

Xµ = 6607.692

Yµ = 8743.943

Xµ−Yµ = -2136.251

S² x+S² y
SDx =
√ nx+ ny
; where Sx and Sy are the standard deviations of the two

independent samples and nx and ny are the sample sizes.

That is;

Xµ−Yµ
Z= S ² x+ S ² y
√ nx +ny

Therefore;

90
 2136.251
Z=
( 2635.148 ) ²+(3387.41) ²
√ 227 227

2136.251
¿
6944002.4053+11474546.5081
√ 227 227

2136.251 2136.251
= =
√ 30590.3190+50548.6630 √ 81138.9820

2136.251
= 284.8491 =7.50

Thus, Z is equal to 7.50

Critical or Table Value of z:

The critical or table value of z for a two-tailed test at the 0.05 level of
significance is ± 1.96

Decision Rule:

Reject the null hypothesis if the z-calculated is greater than the z-critical.
Otherwise, do not reject H0

Inference or Decision:

Since the calculated value of z (7.50) is greater than the critical value of z (±
1.96), the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative hypothesis was
accepted.

Conclusion:

91
The quantity of water needed by students is significantly different from the
quantity of water currently consumed by these students in FUTO hostels.

Mean Standard n Standard *z- **z-

Deviatio Error cal crit
n
8743.94 2635.148
(x) 227
3
required
284.8491 7.50 1.96
6607.69 3387.41
(y) 277
2
consumed

*z-cal ≡ Calculated z-value

**z-crit ≡ Critical (or table) z-value

Appendix 4
92
z-table

93