GROUNDWATER CHALLENGES AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE RESIDENTS OF SELECTED COMMUNITIES IN MOKWA LGA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The aim of this paper examined groundwater challenges and its effects on the residents of some selected communities in Mokwa LGA, Niger State, Nigeria. This study employed both primary and secondary sources of data collection. The primary data were sourced from the administration of questionnaire to two groups, namely, selected agencies of government directly involved in groundwater supply management and the general public located in the study area. Secondary data sources include journals, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedia, library, etc. Secondary data sources were used to add value to this study. The study respondents were 399 and simple random sampling was used to distribute the questionnaires among the respondents. The study shows that unregulated extraction ranked the highest with 26.5%, climate change ranked second with 22.4%, lack of fund to drill sustainable borehole/well ranked third with 11.8%, poor knowledge on groundwater management system ranked fourth with 9.8%, inadequate hydrogeologist usage in the study area ranked fifth with 8.5% and present of shallow aquifer ranked the least with 4.4% of respondents. This revealed that major groundwater challenges in the study area was unregulated extraction while the minor groundwater challenge was present of shallow aquifer. As shown in the study, more productive time usage on groundwater collection ranked the highest with 35.7%, increased in groundwater scarcity ranked second with 22.4%, increased in amount of money used to buy water ranked third with 17.7%, increased in waterborne diseases ranked fourth with 13.6% and less groundwater usage on agriculture ranked the least with 10.6% of respondents. This revealed that the major effect of groundwater challenges on the residents was more productive time usage on groundwater collection and this option was selected majorly because of the important of water for consumption. While the minor effect of groundwater challenges on the residents of the study area was less groundwater usage on agriculture. In conclusion, today, people in the study area are looking at groundwater as an infinite resource thereby, ignoring its real value. Rather, more attention is given to the construction sectors. There is groundwater scarcity in the study area as a result of increase in population growth, pollution, increased urbanization, increased vegetal cover depletion and shrinking of ponds, rivers, and rising standard of living in a unsustainable manner.