Self supply systems are privately owned household water sources. The systems are generally perceived as playing a role in water service delivery to the rural poor. The systems' yielding safe drinking-water also receives little attention in literature and policy, relative to public and communal sources. This paper assessed urban self supply wells and argues that self supply is a coping water supply strategy of not only the rural poor, but also of the unserved in the cities. The assessment included inventory and classification of sources, forms of access to sources, types and number of users in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Ninety eight percent of the self supply sources in the study area are hand dug wells. The design and construction features vary from protected, semi-protected to unprotected well structures. Forty five percent of the urban population is found to have access to either a restricted or free access hand dug well. The paper emphasizes the need to see self supply sources as the third angle, which completes the water supply triangle with the public and communal water systems as the other angles.

A water safety plan (WSP) is a preventive comprehensive risk assessment and management approach to ensuring the safety of a drinking water supply from source to tap for public health protection. The concept was introduced in the last decade in international guidance documents and has been applied widely across a varied range of water supply systems, particularly, the public water utilities and to a lesser extent towards small systems. Mainstreaming water safety intervention for small systems however, would ensure safe household water to a wider population, alleviate poverty and hunger through water for use in support of livelihood activities, and help towards achieving the sustainable development goals. Self-supply hand-dug wells in Abeokuta, Nigeria, were assessed using the step-by-step World Health Organization WSP model, mainly from the relevant system assessment to operational monitoring and management procedures. This paper reviewed the methodology of water safety planning and flagged the issue of ‘who’ conducts WSP for small systems. The paper also evaluated major control measures critical to self-supply and suggested an apt WS planning model for the systems. The WSP framework for self-supply systems incorporated an institutional aspect for WSP coordination.

This study was carried out in Igun-Ijesha, Osun State, Nigeria to determine the likely hotspots of water contamination for future treatment trials. Water quality analyses were based on physico-chemical and heavy metal parameters of surface and ground water collected from the study community. A total of thirty-eight water samples were collected between September 2012 and February 2013 and analyzed using standard procedures. Concentrations of heavy metals were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Results showed that water samples within the gold mining community are contaminated and the hydrochemistry varied with seasons. The values of magnesium, turbidity, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity and pH during the period of sampling ranged 3.1-42.1 mg/L, 0-150 NTU, 30-560 mg/L, 80-1192 µS/cm and 5.95-8.55 respectively. Chloride, nitrate, phosphate, sulphate and sodium data were within the stipulated limits set by the Nigerian Standards for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ). Heavy metal contents of the groundwater were generally higher than those from surface water sampled within the mining district. The values of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, nickel and zinc, ranged from 0.01-1.20, 0.05-0.52, 0. 80-34.80, 0.09-4.30, 0.09-8.30, 0.05-3.94, 0.05-19.6 and 1.80-29.90 mg/L respectively. Most of the listed metals have values exceeding the international and national recommended limits. The daily intake of water in the study area poses a potential health threat from long-term exposure to heavy-metals. The study suggests that water safety plans should be developed to safeguard water resource and public health within the mining community.

This study focused on designing a drinking water systems sustainability index for Integrated Water Resources Management in low-income countries. Water Supply Systems Sustainability Index (WSSI), a field assessment tool, was designed for rapid appraisal of drinking water systems in selected urban, peri-urban and rural Nigerian communities. The systems were classified into Highly Sustainable, Sustainable, Averagely Sustainable, and Unsustainable WSSI categories. Sanitary Risk Score (SRS) was assigned, classifying drinking water systems into Very High, High, Intermediate (Medium) and Low-Risk categories. WSSI results revealed that for urban systems, 90 are Highly Sustainable, 27 are Sustainable and 12 are Averagely Sustainable. For peri-urban systems, 13 are Highly Sustainable, 7 Sustainable and 1 Averagely Sustainable. Only urban hand-dug wells are in the Very High-Risk category. Public water supplies occurred only in the Low-Risk (17) and Intermediate-Risk (6) categories. Urban and rural boreholes had better quality than peri-urban boreholes. WSSI and SRS correlation result indicated strong positive correlation for urban hand-dug wells' (R2 = 0.5688, at p < 0.05) and weak positive correlation between peri-urban hand-dug wells' (R2 = 0.1847, at p < 0.05) and urban boreholes' WSSI and SRS (R2 = 0.2032, at p < 0.05). Findings showed that drinking water systems are, generally, sustainable and WSSI could be incorporated into community-level water supply assessment.

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Water security, as a sustainable development goal, ensures that sustainable water supply is consistently available to every individual. A water supply systems assessment matrix was designed as a tool for assessing water supply systems (WSS) in low-income countries; with selected urban, peri-urban, and rural Nigerian communities as case studies. Sustainability of the WSS was assessed through established criteria against five sustainability factors. Sanitary surveys were conducted to evaluate the risks associated with the WSS using Sanitary Inspection Forms through which the Sanitary Risk Scores (SRS) were derived. For sustainability, the WSS were ranked as Very High, High, Medium and Low Sustainability, and for SRS as Very High, High, Intermediate and Low Risk. A Sustainability and Risk Assessment Matrix (SRAM) was designed using sustainability evaluation and risk assessment for the WSS. The WSS in the rural areas are more ‘Secure’ than those in urban and peri-urban towns, and boreholes are more ‘Secure’ than hand-dug wells, but none of the public water point is scored ‘Secure’. The paper concludes that SRAM provides a cost-effective method of classification and may serve as a pre-water quality and source sustainability assessment tool, especially in low-income countries, as part of the measures to achieve water security.