Abstract:
Even if Gondar city had the modern water supply service in1930s, and has been
expanding in the later years, still the demand is not satisfied and large numbers of
people don‟t have access to adequate amount of potable water. The objective of the
study was to assess the challenges and prospects for water supply. Emphasis was put
on examining the nature of the water supply challenges, impacts of water supply
shortage on households, perception of households towards water supply service and
the prospective option for city water supply enhancement. For the study, from 160
samples, 150 households were selected by using systematic random sampling
technique. Both primary and secondary data sources were used in this study. For
primary data collection, household surveys, key informant interview, focus group
discussion and personal observation were used as tools to collect the necessary
information. For secondary data collection, document review and data were used to
collect valuable information. The key informants and focus group discussants were
selected by purposive sampling techniques. The data from the respondents were
analyzed using SPSS software and interpreted and narrated using descriptive statics
(tables & figures). The findings revealed that almost all of the respondents prioritized
or referred water supply service to their prime need to be fulfilled. The water demand
of the city is higher than the present supply that the current water supply service
found to satisfying 22%-25% of the demand of the residents. It has been revealed that
water shortage in the city is grounded on and circumscribed by such challenges as
poor watershed development, high population increase, urbanization, financial
problems, and limited water sources. As a result, household members have to find out
alternatives to access the water. This has brought heath and, financial impacts as well
as impacts on domestic activities. Protracted water crisis in the study area was
enforced the household to develop coping mechanisms. The Common mechanisms to
cope with the situation include drilling of boreholes and wells, rainwater harvesting,
buying water from street water vendors, changes in water consumption patterns,
buying of many storage facilities and walking long distance in searching for water.
Therefore, the perception of households indicated that, households were not satisfied
with quality of services the GCWSS is offering. Finally, to solve the water source
problems and make sustainable water supply, GCWSS has to search any possible
alternatives mentioned in the study.
