This study aims at assessing women’s coping strategies with water variability and
vulnerability with overall aim at improving access to water in Oyo North Region,
Nigeria.
The study made use of case study design using both socio economic characteristics
and metrological data linking how low and fluctuating precipitation impacts water
supply shortages for domestic purposes. A total of 397 structured questionnaires
were administered in three case study communities. Key informant interviews were
carried out with local institutions in the water sectors while Focus Group Discussions
were also organized for men and women seperately. Descriptive and Inferential
analyses are done with the use of SPSS software based on Climate Vulnerability
Index (CVI) and Anova model for spatial analysis in order to detremine factors that
influence the choice of coping strategies.
Climate variability and its impacts on local water system is evident in reduction of
number of raining days and the implication of it on climate sensitive water resources.
The challenge is not about the annual mean precipitation value but the distribution of
it across the seasons of the year. The research findings show that Climate
Vulnerability Index in the case study communities varied in that informal
neighbourhoods are more vulnerable than formal and that vulnerability increases as
one move to a more densely poor populated built environment. Specifically,
residents in the informal areas of Iseyin have the highest CVI value of 0.4193,
followed by informal housing in Okeho with CVI of 0.4745. The least vulnerable
community is the formal neighbourhood of Shaki, which has the CVI value of 0.5806.
Awareness on climate change is shaped by indigenous knowledge which contributes
43.8%. The eight socio-economic (independent variables) jointly explain 20.7% (R2
)
of the total variation in the factors that influence the choice of coping strategies for
water accessibility in the study area while education status alone explains 76% of
factors that determine the choice of coping strategies which is followed by household
size which explains only 9.7%. The calculated ANOVA (F value) of 6.002 is greater
than the F table value indicates that the regression result is significant. At the
institutional level, no specific documentation and policy guidelines on climate issues
in terms forecast, risk assessment, warning systems and adaptation issues.
Adaptive water management to improve accessibility should set priority in
addressing multi dimension of developmental end environmental stressor such as
poverty, bad governance, institutional failure which have the capacity to reinforce the
impacts of climate variation and its impacts on local water systems.