CHALLENGES AND CONSEQUENCES OF WATER SCARCITY: NEED FOR PUBLIC- PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN KAZAURE TOWN, JIGAWA STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the level of water scarcity across Kazaure town, Jigawa State and the strategies employed by public and private agencies to increase their resilience toward access to affordable and safe clean water supply. Water scarcity is one of the major challenges affecting the livelihood of people in Kazaure town.  The aim of the study was to examine water scarcity at micro level, in Kazaure town. A total of 1520 samples were selected which constituted 0.4% of the total population. The respondents were selected using availability sampling at water collection points of which only 1500 questionnaires were successfully returned and 20 were not. The data was analysed using simple descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) single factor. Results revealed that 20% of the sampled population has resorted to land leasing near water sources for their farming activities, 53% has stopped dry season farming in the area of fishing, 45% of the sample respondents have stopped fishing while 56.5% indicated that they have resorted to providing their water needs by themselves. The study revealed that there are only 60 hand pump boreholes in the whole of Kazaure. The ANOVA test also indicated that there were no significant differences in terms of water sources between the settlements at 0.05 level (P 0.067) and there were significant differences in terms of water facility types between the settlements at 0.05 level of significance (P 0.046). It was established from the study that water scarcity has negatively affected livelihood activities in the study area. The paper recommends that private sectors should be encouraged to pool resources together to provide and improve water supply projects and state and local government should provide more mechanical powered bore holes in the areas for effective water supply.     &nbsp