International Journal of Geography and Regional Planning Vol. 5(2), pp. 122-127, October, 2019. © www.premierpublishers.org. ISSN: 2021-6009 Case Study Challenges of Water Supply and its Effect on Economic Production: A Case Study of Ussa Local Government Area, Taraba State Nigeria 1Shenpam, Godwin Daniel, *2Danjuma, Andembutop Kwesaba, 3Umaru Benjamin 1,2,3Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Federal University Wukari, Nigeria In recent years, Ussa has faced various challenges in water supply which has been a major concern to law makers and the government of Taraba state. This study therefore is aimed at examining the various problems and prospect of water supply in Ussa Local Government. The specific objectives were to identify the existing sources of water supply in Ussa Local Government of Taraba state, to examine the problems and prospect associated with each source in the study area, and to proffer alternative measure to appropriate quarters. Data were collected from 150 respondent of the study area. The data were analyzed using frequency tables and simple percentage statistics. The results revealed that 87.1% of the respondents agreed that there is water shortage in the area which as a result has led to increase charges by the suppliers, 51.3% said the water was good. More than 60% of the respondent claimed that the population of the study area usually consumes the water directly without any method of purification, and that the water is mostly used for domestic purposes. The study also reveals that 68.1% problem of water supply problem is seasonality and distance to source. Finally, the research shows that there are 28 boreholes existing in the study area while only 15 of the boreholes are functioning at the time when the research was conducted. The study recommends government at all levels to increase investment in providing water to the residents of the study area. Keywords: Water Supply, Ussa, Taraba, Challenges, Economic, INTRODUCTION According to World Bank (2015), bulk of the population of The local inhabitants usually spend hours in search for developing countries is predominately rural. The living water sources which are often polluted and unreliable, conditions of this vast majority are largely characterized by particularly during the dry season. This situation leads to low quality residential units, unsanitary environment and prevalence of various water related diseases and the lack of social facilities such as community water supply, attendant improvement in standard of living of rural people. roads, health facilities, and recreational centers. Present Unfortunately, there is the complete lack of defined projection for developing countries shows that over one concept of the good water supply development and billion or nearly one third of the world population has no empirical data on the degree to which different supplies in proper water supply (World Bank 2015). It is therefore different situation will achieve this goal (World Bank, clear that the supply of clean and reliable rural water 2015). system is one essential factor necessary not only for good health, welfare and productivity of rural population, but *Corresponding Author: Danjuma, Andembutop also for the overall economic growth of developing Kwesaba, Department of Hospitality and Tourism countries. In other words, improved rural water supplies Management, Federal University Wukari, Nigeria. would stimulate and promote agricultural productivity, E-mail: [email protected]; industrial development, publicized rural integrated Co-Authors 1Email: [email protected]; development. 3Email: [email protected] Challenges of Water Supply and its Effect on Economic Production: A Case Study of Ussa Local Government Area, Taraba State Nigeria Shenpam et al. 123 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM lasts on the average from April to October. Mean annual rainfall is around 1300mm. The wettest months are August As essential as water is to life, it is still in inadequate supply and September. in Ussa Local Government Area. This inadequacy has persisted for many years now, yet there have not been The dry season lasts from November to March. The driest enough researches especially on Ussa Local Government months are December and January with relative humidity Area to document the impact of this on the residents of the dropping to about 15 percent. Mean annual temperature Local Government Area. around Ussa is about 280C with maximum temperatures varying between 300C and 39.40C. The minimum This research is therefore aimed at examining the temperatures range between 150C to 230C. (Wikipeadia, challenges of inadequate water supply in Ussa Local 2016) Government Area of Taraba state and recommend appropriate ways of alleviating them. Temperatures are low throughout the year and the rainy season lasts from February to November with a mean STUDY AREA annual rainfall of over 1850mm. Ussa is a Local Government Area in Taraba State, Nigeria. Soil of the study area Its headquarter is in the town of Lissam at lats 7°11′00″N and 10°02′00″E (See figure 1) Ussa borders with the The types of soil in the study area are clay, loamy and Republic of Cameroon in the south; the Donga River forms sandy soil. These types of soil support agricultural crops, its northern boundary. The Local Government also borders (physical observation by the researcher). The soils with Takum. It has area coverage of 1,495 km² and a developed on the above rocks are generally deep well population of 92,017 at the 2006 census. (National drained with texture surface horizons, due to the richness Population Commission, 2006). Kuteb people are the of minerals in the area. dominant population located in USSA. The people of Ussa local government area are Geology of the study area predominantly farmers. Therefore, in the area, about 90% of the populations are engaged in agricultural activities Ussa Local Government land forms like rocks, hills and with the aim of producing many varieties of crops to meet mountains give the area distinctive features. This region is the need of the society. thinly populated with large vast of uncultivated land. A marked contrast to the floodplains is the undulating The systems of agriculture practiced in the study area are lowland of the southern plains. This is broken intermittently subsistence farming crop rotation and mechanized by high rising hills such as the Rufu, Fikyu and Kpambo agriculture. Both large scale farmers and small-scale hills which are found on sandstones. Standing above farmers do practice the systems mentioned above though 350m contour, the hills are developed on both sedimentary about 85% of the farmers engage in subsistence farming and crystalline rocks (Gimba 2011). while few farmers operate on commercial ventures. Usually, hills on sedimentary formations tend to have flat The major crops grown in the study area include rice, tops due most probably to lateritic capping. On the other maize, yam, cassava, groundnut, pepper garden eggs etc. hand, the hills which are developed on crystalline rocks The rearing of livestock like goats, sheep, dogs, cattle etc. consist of dome shaped inselbergs. and agricultural activities in the study area has greatly increased over the years. (Danjuma, 2014). Relief of the study area Vegetation of the study area The area is underlined by sedimentary and basement complex rocks. These are very ancient rocks which Ussa local government consists of mixed savanna and originally made up of the complete structure. The area forest types of vegetation, which are characterized with consists of hard igneous rock mainly basalts and gneisses thick grasses and scattered tall trees. The trees are with some metamorphic rocks. The rocks have high therefore deciduous in nature because during the wet minerals content and it is generally form of mselbergs, season they produce a lot of leaves and look greenish but which rise at times to several hundred meters above the during the dry season they shed their leaves and look ground (Danjuma, 2014). reddish. Climate of the study area- rainfall Like most parts of northern Nigeria, Ussa Local government has a wet and dry climate. The wet season Challenges of Water Supply and its Effect on Economic Production: A Case Study of Ussa Local Government Area, Taraba State Nigeria Int. J. Geogr. Reg. Plan. 124 Fig. 1: Location Map of Ussa Source: Taraba State Ministry of Land and Survey, Jalingo (2018) METHODOLOGY Ussa local government. It is divided into two sections, A and B. Section A sought biographic data of respondents, The research method that was used for this study is the while section B comprised 12 items on the challenges of survey design. The survey design is a design in which data water supply and its effects on economic production in collected from a large sample of the population are Ussa local government. The questions in section B will representative of the entire population (Benjamin, 2015). seek to know the views of the respondents on the This design aims to enable the researcher collect opinions challenges of water supply in the study area. The of the people on the assessment of water and its effects instrument rating was based on a four – point modified on economic production in Ussa Local Government Area. likert scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). Instrument for data collection Sources of data The research instrument used for the study is a 12 – item researchers – developed questionnaire titled “Challenges Data is information that has been translated into a form of water supply and its effects on economic production in that is more convenient to move or process. Relative to Challenges of Water Supply and its Effect on Economic Production: A Case Study of Ussa Local Government Area, Taraba State Nigeria Shenpam et al. 125 today's computers and transmission media, data is Fikyu, Lumbu and Kpambo-Puri wards. Simple random information converted into binary digital form (Olofin 2007).