WATER SUPPLY AND POPULATION PROJECTIONS: CASE OF BENIN CITY

Idiata, David J., Omoruyi, Friday O., and Iguisi, Akugbe

Department of Civil Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering

Edo State Institute of Technology and Management, Usen, Benin City.

E-mail: djgrandmaster4christ@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

The UN general assembly, in December 2003 proclaimed the years 2005 to 2015, as the international decade for action “water for life”. A decade of action; the primary goal of the “water for life” decade is to promote efforts to fulfill international commitments made on water and water related issues by 2015 and this ‘water for life’ is part of its millennium development goals. The provision of adequate water supply and sanitation to the rapidly growing urban population is increasingly becoming a problem for governments throughout the world. The absence of virtually any reliable current demographic data has not prevented national and international bodies from generating estimates and projections of population and population growth in Nigeria, the population of Benin city 1.225 million is growing by 3.3% for Nigeria and average of 1.14% or the world per annum and this has place tremendous pressure on the main source of water the government own Ikpoba River dam facilities. The population projection is to range from 1.45 million in 2010 to over 2.35 million in 2025 and the water demand of the city per day is to range from 172 million litres in 2010 to over 280 million litres in 2025.

Keywords:  Population, Projection, Population Growth rate, water demand