Water Supply and Demand Status of Areka Town, Southern Ethiopia

Water is one of the vital necessity or the need for human being and for all living things. This study was conducted to assess the existing and to forecast the future water supply and demand status of the Areka town, southern Ethiopia. A total of 196 households (HHs) were randomly selected and interviewed by using a questionnaire. To collect the required data, interview and observation were used and written documents were reviewed. Data analyzed by SPSS and Excel spread sheet. The town population was growing rapidly, but water production was low, i.e. only 720m3/d. This covers only 51.9% of the total population. Additional water production of 26.49 l/s (2288.7m3/d) was required to fill the gap. Available per capita water demand, i.e. 11.48l/c/d was small as compared to WHO basic access standard, i.e. 20 l/c/d. The total revenue water and non-revenue water from the existing water production were 525.18m3/d and 194.81m3/d, respectively. About 48% of HHs got their primary water from existing water supply lines and the remaining 52% got their primary water from non-connected sources. In order to narrow the supply and demand gap, expansion of water supply services and additional water sources should be provided.