Water Use, Availability, and Sources Classification
by Tayo Fasuan
Water is a crucial component for sustaining balance. However, the importance of water extends beyond its physiological necessity. Reliable availability to water in appropriate numbers and quality for a healthy living is vital for agricultural food production, personal hygiene, and psychological well-being. Water functions as a universal solvent, supports the digestion, absorption, transport, and metabolism of nutrients, stores and releases heat for thermoregulation, preserves osmotic gradients and action potentials, and offers protection by acting as a physical shock absorber. The main ways that people lose water are through sweat, excrement, breathing, and urine, and fatigue and cognitive impairment can result from a 1–2 percent loss of bodily water, or mild dehydration.
To survive, both consumptive and non-consumptive uses of water are necessary. Water is used for purposes other than cooking, bathing, and drinking. In Southwestern Nigeria, the most common uses of water are for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes, cleaning dishes, using the toilet/sanitation, and washing cars, with the uses exclusively for domestic purposes. Water availability in areas that were already water-stressed, before climate change has gotten worse, due to climate change and its effects on the ecosystem, while those that had enough water already have to seek for it, which comes at a high cost to humanity. Everyday household water use in the tropics is greatly influenced by the dynamics of the daily atmospheric conditions.
Tropical regions frequently experience weather systems linked to heavy rainfall and can result in flooding, damage to water supply infrastructure, and alterations to water quality. These events can also affect household water usage patterns as people search for potable water. Tropical areas are also known to have high temperatures and humidity, which can worsen evaporation rates, resulting into households requiring more water for comfort-related purposes like drinking and bathing.
During the dry season, water supplies may become more limited and demand for water is typically higher, necessitating more measures to guarantee that there is enough water available to satisfy daily needs. The amount of water used every day at home can be influenced by variations in the time of day it rains, for example, if it rains during the day, people may choose to collect rainwater for different uses, which might lessen their dependence on outside water sources.
Increasing the availability of water is the goal of international water initiatives in low-income and middle-income nations. Based on the quality of service, water supplies are classified as “improved” and “unimproved” by the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Program for Water and Sanitation (JMP), which is in charge of tracking progress toward Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7. Although this classification is still being used frequently till date, the new JMP classification are:
- safely managed—drinking water from an improved water source that is located on premises, available when needed and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination;
- basic—drinking water from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 min for a round trip, including queuing;
- limited—drinking water from an improved source for which collection time exceeds 30 min for a round trip, including queuing;
- unimproved—drinking water from an unprotected dug well or unprotected spring, and;
- surface water—drinking water directly from a river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal or irrigation canal.
Improved water sources were defined as water from piped water, boreholes or tube wells, protected dug wells, protected springs, rainwater, and packaged or delivered water. Unimproved refers to surface water, unprotected springs, and unprotected dug wells. As at 2022, 6 billion people used safely managed water; 1.5 billion people used basic drinking water; 292 million people used limited drinking water; 296 million unimproved water from unprotected wells and springs; and 115 million people collected untreated surface water from lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. Water canals are examples of surface waters which have been classified as unimproved water supplies by WHO and UNICEF.
Source
Oluwatayo Fasuan, Tolulope Ogunnusi, & Oghenerobor Akpor. Investigation of the water-use behaviours of households in proximity to water canals in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Discov Water 5, 70 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43832-025-00282-2