Assessing the availability of community water at Madlangamphisi, a community in the Hhohho region of Eswatini
Abstract
The research was conducted to assess the availability of domestic water and the extent of the problems associated with water scarcity at Madlangamphisi area in the Hhohho district of Eswatini. The research was a descriptive survey. A questionnaire was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data for the survey. A total of 169 households out of 300 households in the community were randomly selected to participate in the survey. The majority (56.2%) of the households confirmed that there was water scarcity problems in the area as the streams they used for domestic water frequently dried up during the winter months. The study showed that a majority, 51.5% used water from rivers as the main source of domestic water, while 40.2% of the people travelled for more than 1,000 m to fetch water. To cope with water scarcity problems, 43.2% of the households reduced their water consumption level during droughts while 45% practiced rooftop rainwater harvesting. The study concluded that Madlangamphisi community experienced serious water scarcity problems since they relied on unprotected water sources for domestic use. Moreover, they had to travel for more than 200 m to collect water from nearest sources which is considered an indication of water scarcity by the WHO. The study observed that there was a need to introduce a rural water supply scheme in the area to solve the water scarcity problems and that households should treat water for drinking by either boiling or use a disinfectant to eliminate pathogenic organisms in the water.
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Introduction
Water is a valuable life commodity that supports numerous ecosystems. It is however becoming a scarce resource inmost parts of the world, partly due to global warming which results to drought conditions and mismanagement by humans (Srinivasan, et.al., 2012). Eswatini is one of the countries that have an average number of water sources which includes dams, rivers, groundwater, wetlands, springs and streams (Manyatsi and Brown, 2009) to name a few, yet the supply of water is insufficient. The reoccurrence of droughts contributes to the problem of water scarcity. Drought is the temporary decrease of the average water availability. It refers to important deviations from the average levels of natural water availability and is considered a natural phenomenon. It is a result of deficiency in precipitation due to different natural causes that includes global climatic variability and high pressure resulting in lower relative humidity and less precipitation (European Commission, 2007).
Drought is divided into four different categories which are; meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socio-economic drought (Bond and Lake, 2008). A meteorological drought is an extended period, a season, a year or several years of deficient rainfall relative to the statistical multi-year mean for a region. Hydrological drought is the effects of precipitation shortfalls on stream flows, reservoirs, lakes and groundwater levels. Socio-economic drought describes the effects of demands for water exceeding the supply as a result of a water-related supply shortfall. Agricultural drought is the deficiency of soil moisture relative to plant life usually crops. Once a meteorological drought sets in both agricultural and hydrological droughts may follow (FAO, 2012). Eswatini just like other countries is vulnerable to climatic variability, which manifests itself in a number of hydrological disasters including change in the rainfall regimes as well as extreme weather conditions such as drought (Manyatsi et.al, 2010).
Over the years Eswatini has been affected mostly by the meteorological drought (Government of Swaziland, 2008). Examples of droughts that have affected Eswatini in the past include the 1983 drought, 1991/1992, 2001/2002, 2005/2007 and the most recent being the 2014/2015 drought whose effects are still being felt in many rural communities (NDMA, 2015). As droughts reduce the amount of rainfall, this has a negative impact on domestic water availability in particular in many rural areas. The rural areas are the most affected since a large section of its population has no access to adequate portable water supply.
The clean water supply coverage in the form of taps in houses, taps outside houses, community taps and boreholes stood at 33% for the rural population and 84% for the urban population (Manyatsi and Brown, 2009).Rivers and unprotected wells were cited as the main sources of household water for the rural population, with 45% relying on them. Even though these water sources are available their accessibility may differ for each household in the area. According to Ure (2011) nearly a billion people worldwide have limited access to clean water. In developing countries people walk an average of 6 kilometres a day just to collect water.
Madlangamphisi is one of the areas that receive the lowest amount of rainfall in the country. It fluctuates from an average of 600mm-700mm under normal conditions to alow of 500mm-400mm during drought periods (Manyatsi and Brown, 2009). This study reports on the availability, the sources and quality of water in the area and the adaptation strategies implemented by the community during drought periods.
Conclusion
The results of the study show that there is a water scarcity problem at Mandlangamphisi. The only available reliable source of safe drinking water was the borehole which supports 24.9% of the households. The prevalence of hydrological droughts results in the drying up of several water sources, forcing the majority 56.8% of the households to rely on unprotected water sources which included the Nkomazi River and other small seasonal streams. These water sources are unsafe for domestic use without treatment. Most of the water sources were inaccessible as the majority 68.6% of the households travelled for more than 200 m to collect water, with 76.9% of these spending more than 20 minutes. The WHO, affirms that persons who travel for more than 200 mand spend more than 20 minutes to collect water are facing water scarcity. The majority, 65.1% of the households used less than 30 litres/person/day of water a further indication of water scarcity. The strategies used to cope with the water scarcity problem in the area were found to include rooftop water harvesting, water rationing and purchasing bottled water for drinking. A majority of which are unsafe without treatment.
