Determinants of Household Access to Drinking Water in Nigeria

Abstract

Equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water has been identified as a fundamental human right. Few studies have also considered household access to drinking water regarding both sources of water and the time taken to get access to water. Thus, this paper computes access to drinking water based on the household’s water sources and the time taken to get the water sources. The determinants of household access to drinking water in Nigeria were examined using 2018 Demographic and Health Surveys data. As high as 68.9% of the respondents did not have water sources within their premises, and the majority were from the Northern part of Nigeria. Undeniably, 23.2% of the respondents had poor access to drinking water, and the majority were also from the Northern part of the country. This means regional disparity exists in household access to drinking water in Nigeria. The geopolitical zone, type of place of residence, type of toilet, access to electricity, ethnicity, household population, sex of household head, and wealth index significantly (p=0.01) explained household access to drinking water while religion, age of household head, and highest educational level proved otherwise. We therefore recommend a regional approach to tackle the problem of access to drinking water in Nigeria. There should also be the provision of boreholes, given that it appears to be a more feasible source of drinking water.