Water accessibility at Household levels in Chililabombwe District: A case study of Fitobaula Settlement

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Date
2015-01-29
Authors
Sachikumba, Emmanuel
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Abstract
Zambia is endowed with a great variety of natural resources. For instance, Zambia has good climate with a favourable rainfall pattern; this provides sufficient recharge for the surface and ground water resources. In spite of the sufficient surface and ground water resources, accessibility to water at household levels is problematic both in quality and quantity. Fitobaula settlement, the study area, is located in Chililabombwe district of the Copperbelt province of Zambia. The study examined water accessibility as well as water quality at household level. The research looked at the sources of water for the households and considered the complications of accessibility to water and the available opportunities therein. The investigation involved fifty households and the data was collected by the use of questionnaires (to assess accessibility) and laboratory tests (for ascertaining water quality). In addition to this, government departments such as the health, agriculture, forestry and education as well as the municipal council were interviewed on the topic under study. The study was descriptive in nature where clustered sampling procedures were used to come up with the households which were to participate in the study, while the simple random methods were deployed as a sampling technique to select respondents. The key findings where that; accessibility to water household levels is still a challenge in the settlement as most of the water point sources (shallow wells, the stream and the river) were found to be contaminated. In addition to this, it was found that there was no direct relationship between the economic performance of a household and the accessibility to water. The study also observed that there were opportunities among the people in the settlement as they were increasingly getting into the education system and adult literacy was being encouraged in the settlement. Furthermore, the settlement has groundwater resources which indicate that water can be provided to the residents using boreholes.Though access to drinking water at the household level in peri-urban areas is problematic, exploitation of ground water with suitable technologies can be of significant importance
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Water Supply-Chililabombwe, Zambia , Water Supply-Social Aspects-Chililabombwe, Zambia
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