PERCEPTION OF WATER USERS TO HEALTH IMPACTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR URBAN SELF SUPPLY WATER SAFETY PLANS

Abstract

Water safety plans were introduced ten years ago in international guidance documents.  The plans have been extensively applied across developed and developing countries and for rural and urban water supply systems.  The adoption and development of the same for self supply systems is, however, long coming.  Like any intervention, water safety plans require respectively, adoption, development, and implementation.  Water safety policy will be ineffective and technically useless without adoption.  Adoption is linked with perception and attitude of water users, who in the context of self supply systems, are also the asset (source) owners, the water supplier, and invariably, the adopters.  This paper investigates water user’s insight to health impact in Abeokuta, Nigeria. The study is premised within a wider research, in which a total of 105 interviews were conducted between  2007 and 2008, towards  appropriate water safety plans for self supply systems.  The interviews were semi-structured with open ended questions.  61 one respondents were interviewed on health related matters. Details of the raw data were subsequently coded. Findings revealed a general denial attitude to health related impact and five main factors that modulate the identified stance.  The paper discusses how the factors combine to shape perception to health impacts and examine the implications on water safety planning for particularly self supply systems.