Management of Domestic Water by Women in Parts of Kano State, Nigeria

The study examined the role of women in water management with a view to ascertaining their relevance in decision making that pertains the use and management of water at the household level. To achieve this, the various sources of water supply in the area were identified, the decision making roles of women related to water use in the study areas were analysed. The per capita household water use, the possible problems of water supply and means of sustainable water supply and its management in the study area were also analysed. For the selection of the study areas, stratified random sampling was used to select from the four cardinal directions and to samples for the study, purposive sampling where a total of 300 samples were drawn from the study areas in the following proportion Janguza:30, Lambu:25, Zara:20, Goda:20, AllTini:25, Naira:25, TsamiyarBoka:40, HotoroMasallachi:40, Rijiyar Lemu:30, Kurnar Asabe:40. The findings from this study suggest the main source of water for majority is boreholes 29.7%, well water 21% tap water 20.3% and streams 8.7%. And these sources could be private or public. It was found that women are the chief users of water and water is used for cooking, washing cleaning and drinking .The decision related to availability of water in the homes is the husband’s duty. The per capita water consumption varies with household size where the chi square computed for household water consumption shows significant difference in water consumption across the settlements since the asymptotic chi square value of .000 is significant at .05% level. Related to this is that there is a direct relationship between household size and daily water use in the area The study also discovered that Women use both traditional and modern means to store water for use. Women use pots, plastics containers jerry cans and etc. It was also revealed that the scarcity of water in the study areas varied with seasons as a result of which money is expended on the purchase of water.