Patterns of pipe-borne water supply in the Buea Municipality: Challenges and way forward

A growing quest in the mind of man today is to establish a balance equation between his activities and the available freshwater. Trillion of dollars have been spent worldwide to reduce water shortages, but governments and stakeholders ubiquitously have failed to empower the city dwellers and to ambush the challenges to pipe borne water supply. In many parts of developing countries including Cameroon, population growth, urbanization and water demands are rising rapidly, whereas water availability, quality, reliability, frequency and distribution are decreasing rapidly due to planning deficiencies, inefficient management and deterioration. This study aimed at examining the patterns of pipe borne water supply in the Buea Municipality, challenges and municipal response. A sample size of 120 inhabitants was taken to represent the entire population in the study area. Simple random sampling technique was then used to identify the most appropriate respondents and locations. Findings were analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS), Microsoft excel and represented in the form of tables and figures. Findings revealed that, there is limited water supply reliability, access and distribution in the Buea Municipality attributed to physical and anthropological influences such as inadequate water supply, degradation and poor water management by the municipal authorities. The study look forward to giving recommendations of the use of water storage devices such as water tanks as a short term strategy and the extension of pipes distribution lines to be in direct proportion with population growth among others.