Access to adequate water is a major challenge facing many households in Nigeria especially In Lokoja, which

has the largest burden of morbidity and mortality. Previous studies on water accessibility focused on quality,

without considering the pattern of urban households’ access to water based on geographic location and household

socio-economic characteristics. Therefore, this study investigated socio-economic and spatial determinants of

households’ access to safe water in Lokoja, Nigeria with a view to developing practical and policy guidelines

that will enhance access to safe drinking water. Cross-sectional design was adopted. A semi-structured

questionnaire was administered to 350 household heads in the six residential zones across Lokoja as identified

in the Lokoja Urban Master Plan. This was obtained using Taro Yamane sample size calculator based on the

2025 population projection of 58,219 households. The data were analyesed using descriptive and inferential

accessibility across residential zones in Lokoja. To achieve equitable access to safe water, restoration of public

water reservoir system, provision of motorised and hand-pumped boreholes especially low ad medium density

area were recommended among others.

Keywords: Access to safe water, Accessibility, Lokoja Water Supply

In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly officially recognised the availability of clean and sufficient water,

as well as proper sanitation, as an essential human right. It urged all nations to intensify their actions to guarantee

affordable, dependable, and safe water services for everyone (United Nations, 2010). Approximately 489 million

people around the world still lacked improved water sources as of 2020, and about 122 million relied directly on

untreated surface water. The problem is regarded as most critical in sub-Saharan Africa, where inadequate water,

water.

Many urban settlements have developed without adequate consideration for wastewater management and this

has increased the vulnerability of groundwater resources to contamination. UN-Water/Africa classifies Sub-

Saharan Africa as water-deficient, suggesting a lack of access to reliable water for consumption. In several

nations in this part of Africa, pipe-borne water delivery service is disrupted; households are either without water

or have access to water for a restricted number of hours each day.

As global monitoring of water access advances under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework,

there is growing recognition of the need to understand the complex social and economic dynamics that shape

access, usage patterns, and lived experiences. Such insight is crucial for promoting equity in policy interventions

and ensuring that water supply initiatives deliver meaningful benefits. Lokoja is a confluence city to two major

association between socio-economic characteristics of households and access to safe water? Against this

background this study seeks to examine socio-economic and spatial determinant of access to safe water in Lokoja

Conceptual clarification

Accessibility

Accessibility is defined as the quality of being at hand when needed, or as the degree of which a product, device,

or service and commodity is available to as many as possible. Accessibility can also be viewed as the ability to

access and benefit from some system or entity. However, this concept is applicable to the study because access

to water is essential to the health and wealth of a nation. From the foregoing, a conceptual framework for this

study is therefore given below in a pictorial model in Figure 1.

resources and economic hardship. When there is drought and scarcity human and animals are forced to move

from area of deficit to abundance. For instance, Women in developing countries walk an average of 6 kilometers

per day to collect drinking water, in Cameroun they spend an average of 6 hours per day while in Kenya, and

about four hours is spent in dry season and two hours in wet season (National Institute of Statistics, Cameroun

(NISC), 2004).

Proximity

Accessibility means aggregate nearness whereas the Advanced English Dictionary defines proximity as nearness

and it is often quantifying with the world close. Put another way, accessibility is the synonym of proximity.

Living in household with access to proximate water source has several benefits; private well or in - house tap

water may be of higher quality than water from community sources, close water source reduces the need for

lengthy storage, and also limit bacteria growth, this can also free mothers from water fetching so that they can

Human Rights (UN OHCHR, 2010) reports that women in many African regions travel an average of six

kilometres daily to fetch water, revealing a persistent gender gap in access and the physical burden associated

with water collection.

the introduction of hazards to health and this can be achieved by ensuring that; pipes carrying either water or

waste are water tight, cross connection between drinking water supply and waste water removal system do not

occur, water is discharged without contaminating drinking water and plumbing system function efficiently.

Water Accessibility and scarcity

Access to water is defined as a condition of uninterrupted contact and use of water for different purposes, and it

can be in terms of quality and cost of getting water for various uses (Ifabiyi & Ogunbode, 2014). Water scarcity

can be defined as the lack of access to potable water (Ifabiyi, 2011). On the other hand, it is attributed to a

changing climate and population growth (Seckler et al., 1998). In addition, the water available to meet human

demand and to each person can serve as a measure of scarcity (Rijsberman, 2006). Access to safe drinking water

has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still

lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack accesses to adequate sanitation, (Oriola et al. (2017) stated

that the Sahel and Sahara are severely affected. This is because they are areas of the globe where adequate water

of people who are not financially buoyant to use existing water sources (FAO, 2012). According to WHO (2002),

most of the people in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from economic water scarcity. Economic accessibility

refers to the affordability of water services, ensuring that the cost of obtaining safe and adequate water does not

to all, particularly low-income and marginalised populations. UN General Comment No. 15 (para. 12) stresses

that payment for water services must be based on the principle of equity, taking into account both social and

economic conditions. In line with this, the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2022) advocates for progressive

tariff systems and targeted subsidies that protect the poor while maintaining financial sustainability of water

utilities.

Methods and Study Area

of 137.9 km² per year (Ifatimehin et al., 2014). During the rainy season, its water level typically rises to 8–10

metres above sea level, while in the dry season, it falls to around 3–5 metres. The Greater Lokoja Waterworks

relies on the River Niger and its extensive floodplain, which also supports year-round agricultural activities. In

addition to this main drainage system, the Ganaja Stream also flows into the River Niger, contributing to local

hydrology.

Source: Department of Geography, Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba, 2023

of no formal education, primary, secondary and tertiary. Similarly occupation is categorised into four farming,

artisan, trading, and civil service while households’ size is also with three categories of small, medium, and large.

water through rain-harvesting

Access to water in zone 6 which comprises Army Barracks. Otokiti and zango Daji. About 64.3% have access

to bore-hole water while 10.4% have access to tube-well for their water supply. Similarly, about 33.1% claimed

to source their water supply from hand-dug well and a paltry number of 0.2% claimed to source their water

supply from rain-harvesting. The result of this study were corroborated by the findings of Adekola (2018) that

typical urban area in the Southwestern Nigeria do not have access to Pipe-borne water supply but source water

through supplies from underground resources include the hand dug wells and drilled boreholes.

Borehole account for highly significant source of about 64.6% of the total households sampled in the study due

to the fact that most of the households have resorted to the drilling of well and boreholes in order to offset the

huge short fall in water supply as observed (Tomilayo & Sannin, 2013) . The finding also reveals that tube-well

Meanwhile others such as stream and river and rain accounted 0.9 and 2.4 respectively this is because some of

the households in the study area are located in Town.

Source: Field survey, 2026

Results of the multivariate regression analysis are presented in Table 6, the results revealed that all the socio-

economic variable with the exception of religion were significantly associated with access to improved sources

explanatory capacity. Combination of all the independent variables cumulatively explained 54% (R²=0.54) of

minutes to water point.

This is regarded as intermediate access; likely volume of water collected 50 liters per person per day public

health risk from poor hygiene may be compromise and bathing may occurs off-plot. Additionally, 14.4% of the

sampled households travel between 30minute to 1 hour to fetch water; average quantity unlikely to exceed 20

liters per person per day. Public health risk from poor hygiene may be comptomise during outbreak and bathing

may occur off-plot (WHO/UNICEF (2004).

These results suggest that although a significant proportion of residents in Lokoja have access to boreholes, tube

wells, or hand-dug wells capable of meeting their water needs, distance still poses a substantial barrier to

achieving equitable access to improved water sources. The persistence of this challenge underscores the need

for spatially inclusive planning and investment in water infrastructure to reduce travel distance and enhance