Impact of domestic water provision on women in their educational attainment: a case of Iwo, Nigeria

Abstract

The significance of female composition in ensuring water availability in African homes cannot be overestimated as women are by tradition believed to be solely responsible for it. Thus, women and their girls often travel out of their places of abode to ensure the fulfillment of this responsibility. A study was conducted to investigate on the implications of female gender responsibility for water availability in African homes especially on their educational attainment with Iwo in Nigeria as a case study. The study employed the use of questionnaire survey, interviews and focus groups to generate data for this purpose. Two hundred and fifty (250) households were randomly selected in the town for the purpose of the survey out of which 239 (95.6%) were retrieved. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis. The results of the descriptive analysis revealed that 74.2% both female and male gender submitted to the belief that women in African homes are responsible for the provision of water and that the search for water gulp appreciable women economic hours as 58.5%spent over 30 minutes to get water for home use. Also, the survey showed that the trouble of water fetching has untold hardship on the education attainments as appreciable economic hours are spent daily in search of water for home use rather than attending to education matters. Factor Analysis extracted 9 factors which explained 72.36% of how water supply responsibility has contributed to educational attainment of women. Household size (14.59%) and indecision on the home chores (9.87%) are the two topmost factors. The results implied that educational attainment of women is hindered partly due to water-associated burdens and concerns. The study therefore recommends that relevant stakeholders in water management policies need to rise up to the challenge of timely water accessibility and home connections to functioning pipe-borne water networks to minimize the hours spent in water fetching so that more time can be available for education purpose.