water sources, infrastructure, space and the dynamics of ...

Water sources, infrastructure, space and the dynamics of environmental diseases in Saboba District: Using GISconsiderable increase in water related diseases such as Typhoid. This hasfurther deepened the poverty levels of the people, especially women inthe district. Pervasive poverty in turn forces people to make desperatechoices with regards to the use of their environment such as free-rangedefecation, waste dumping etc. These choices frequently increase theirwater related health risks.Management of water resources: the past and the present comparedTable 8 shows various customary (CL) and government/district lawswith the aim of protecting water resources in the district. Both legalsystems largely use punitive system of managing and protecting waterbodies. A glance at the table shows that customary laws protected waterresources in its entirety than government laws. For example, 8.1% (7) ofrespondents mention do not cut trees along rivers or water bodies while nonemention that for government/district laws. The reasons for suchrestrictions are; 1) to prevent river bank erosion and siltation, and 2) toprevent farming and use of fertiliser very close to sources of drinkingwater.Management of water: effectiveness of customary and district systemsFigure 5 shows that more than a third (41.8%) of the respondents saidthat the customary laws were highly effective, 36.1% (medium), while22.1% said its effectiveness was low. However, a reverse is the case forgovernment/district laws in protecting water resources. Close to half(49.5%) of the respondents believe the effectiveness was low, 44%(medium), while only 6.5% said it was highly effective. This low ratingfor government/district laws is due to four reasons; 1) lack of effectivewater policy and low implementation of government machinery, 2) thefact that the government laws are made top-down, unlike customary lawswhich came from the people by the people and for the people, 3) due to socialallegiance and instant punishment meted out to offenders, people weremore likely to obey customary laws, and 4) Umoadanbor ownership of thewater resources was on small territories and easily monitored than largeterritorial boundaries of the district. This gives credence to furtherdecentralisation of water management policies.Sources of water in the selected areasThe sources of water for some selected areas in the district are presentedin this section. I selected Saboba Town, Bordagbalm and Wapuli becauseof the variations that exist between the areas, and also due to the factthat these were the chosen areas for administration of questionnaires.Saboba TownSaboba town consists of about 15–20% of the district’s population. Ifthe surrounding villages are added, the proportion will even be greater.The main source of water in the town before mid-1990 was mainly fromthe Moadani dam located some few metres to Umoadanbor-do (River-Chief’s Home) and wells. The town used to have only 3 boreholes – oneeach at SABTECH, Moadani and Chief-section. However, the ones atSABTECH and Moadani have been out of operation over 10 years agodue to lack of maintenance. Two new boreholes have been added atMoadani recently, of which water from one of them already have badscent. To avoid being seen as bias, the NGOs usually site the boreholesfarther away from any of the organised communities, since they cannotprovide all of them with boreholes. As a result, many of the boreholesare sited at farther distance from users, which are usually inaccessibleduring rainy seasons when water gathers the intervening culverts, streamsand valleys. Many of the inhabitants do not use the borehole water21