International Journal of Irrigation and Water Management

International Journal of Irrigation and Water Management ISSN 2756-3804 Vol. 12 (2), pp. 001-012, February, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Review

Safeguarding Drinking Water Sources in Low-Income Municipalities: A Case Study of Buea, Cameroon

Fidelis Folifac1*, Lydia Lifongo2, George Nkeng2, 3 and Susan Gaskin4

1School of Urban Planning, McGill University, Canada.
2Department of Chemistry, University of Buea, Cameroon.
3Director, National Advanced School of Public Works, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
4Department of Civil Engineering, McGill University, Canada.

Accepted 26 January, 2025

Source water contamination poses a risk to public health and increases the cost of drinking water treatment. Source water protection is a proactive approach for the enhancement of drinking water quality and quantity. A combination of research methods (desk review, interviews and reconnaissance field appraisal) have been used to identify major drinking water sources in Buea, land use activities which constitute potential threats and pathways of contamination of these sources as well as the capacity for source water protection in Buea. Our findings revealed that anthropogenic activities around the six major drinking water sources studied present visible potential threats and pathways for contamination, and that source water protection has not been given adequate attention in the planning and development of Buea. The potential human and social capacities are limited by the lack of financial and technical resources. This is further compounded by the fact that institutional arrangement does not facilitate the integration of land and water management at the local level. A framework for local strategic multi-stakeholder source water protection with the potential to foster leadership, pull together available resources from different stakeholders and reduce potential resistance to the integration of land and water management has been proposed. There is an urgent need for the adoption of a precautionary approach and research to develop baseline data that will enable comprehensive source water protection measures.

Key words: Source water protection, drinking water, water contamination, public health, stakeholders, buea, Cameroon.
 

International Journal of Irrigation and Water Management ISSN 2756-3804 Vol. 12 (2), pp. 001-007, February, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluating Reference Evapotranspiration Models in Africa's Semiarid Regions: A Computational Analysis

Y. M. Wang1, S. Traore2* and T. Kerh1

1Department of Civil Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology,
Pingtung 91201, Taiwan, R.O.C.
2Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation, National Pingtung University of Science and

Technology, Pingtung 91201, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Accepted 18 November, 2024

Evapotranspiration is a major component of hydrologic cycle and its accurate estimation is essential for agricultural water management. The Penman-Monteith (PM) equation is the universal accurate method for estimating reference evapotranspiration (ET _ref). Its drawback is the large climatic data required which are unavailable in many African semiarid regions such as Burkina Faso. The Hargreaves (HRG) conventional method which requires few data is still used despite of its non-universal accuracy often reported due to the model inability to capture the effect of some important climatic parameters. Therefore, this study assessed the performance of an artificial neural network (ANN) for computing ET_ref in Dédougou region, located in the Soudano-Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso. This study employed ANN and HRG models in order to evaluate their performance by comparing with the true PM. From the statistical comparison results, ANN showed a good performance than HRG which overestimated ET_ref for the observed condition. Furthermore, wind speed has been found as an important factor in ANN accuracy improvement. Using ANN under semiarid zone climatic condition of Africa for computing ET_ref is highly superior to the conventional method.

Key    words:  Agricultural  water  management,  evapotranspiration,  models  performance,  Sahelian  zone, temperature data.
 

International Journal of Irrigation and Water Management ISSN 2756-3804 Vol. 12 (2), pp. 001-009, February, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Review

Addressing Water Management Issues in Southeastern Nigeria: The Imperative for Governmental Action

Emmanuel M. Akpabio* and Ekanem M. Ekanem

Department of Geography and Regional Planning University of Uyo, P. M. B. 1017, Uyo, Nigeria.

Accepted 21 October, 2024

This paper takes a look at the general condition of water resources availability and management practices in Akwa Ibom State, southeastern Nigeria. The paper observes high incidence of inequity and access burdens on the general population (especially the vulnerable groups) as well as reckless incidence of exploitation of the aquifer for private market. These were all linked to weak government involvements in the management of the resource, a situation that has given rise to uncertainties relating to the survival and the ability of the resource system to sustain livelihoods beyond this generation. The observations in the study reflect the general absence of a strong government commitment in Nigeria to managing water resources with specific concerns on the survival of the ecosystem. While striving to meet the various international commitments on universalizing water access and services, the paper cautions that meeting human needs for water should not be at a degenerating cost to the ecosystem. In the recommendation, the paper advocates a centralized and coordinated water management practices with an ecosystem focus. Attaining this requires strong precautionary policies on water demand management backed up by effective regulatory measures to ensure optimum and balanced supply, efficient use as well as the protection of the natural system.

Key words: Water uncertainties, precaution, effective governance, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
 

International Journal of Irrigation and Water Management ISSN 2756-3804 Vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-011, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Exploring Biotechnological Innovations for Water-Saving Agriculture in Semi-Arid and Arid Environments

Zhengbin Zhang1*, Hongbo Shao2,3,4,*, Ping Xu1, Mengyun Hu1, Weiyi Song5 and Xiaojun Hu1

1Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021, China.
2State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water
Conservation, Chinese Academy of Science and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, China.
3Binzhou University, Binzhou 256603, China.
4Institute of Life Sciences, Qingdao University of Science and Technology Zhengzhou Road 53, Qingdao 266042, China.
5Department of Life Science, Shangqiu Normal University, Shangqiu, 476000, China.

Accepted 6 January, 2025

Drought and water shortage have become a world-wide problem in recent years with the effect of global warming. Water-saving agriculture has become an inevitable direction of agronomical research, it has been developed from practices through agronomic water saving to engineering water saving and to the approaches in biological water-saving. The essence of biological water-saving should be the high-efficient use of water through biological ways, namely the “utilization and exploitation of physiological and genetic potentials of organisms so as to acquire more agricultural output and better economic and ecological benefits by utilizing smaller or same amounts of water or poor quality water”. As a systematic approach, biological water-saving should not only be applied with priority in crop production, but also in other aspects of agriculture and industries such as husbandry, aquaculture, landscaping, sewage water management, water and soil environmental conservations. Therefore, biological water-saving represents the human effort in the construction of a resource-saving and environmental-friendly society.

Key words: Outlook, application, bio-water-saving, water use efficiency (WUE), drought, crop production, sustainable agriculture.
 

International Journal of Irrigation and Water Management ISSN 2756-3804 Vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-009, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Evaluating Irrigation Water Management Effectiveness: A Case Study of Karacabey Irrigation Scheme

Hayrettin Kuscu1* Filiz Eren Bölüktepe2 and Ali Osman Demir3

1Department of Industrial Plants Cultivation and Evaluation, Mustafakemalpasa Vocational School, University of Uludag,
16500 Bursa, Turkey.
2Department of Business Management, Mustafakemalpasa Vocational School, University of Uludag, 16500 Bursa,
Turkey.
3Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Uludag, 16059 Gorukle, Bursa,
Turkey.

Accepted 23 December, 2024

The objective of this study is to assess the performance of irrigation water management of the Bursa– Karacabey irrigation scheme (KIS) located in the western Turkey. The study was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, performance of irrigation water management was assessed using two physical and three financial performance indicators for six years during the period 2002–2007. According to the results, the physical performance indicators, which are average irrigation ratio and relative water supply, were found to be 61% and 0.77, respectively. Nevertheless, the financial performance indicators, which are the effectiveness of fee collection, the financial self sufficiency of fees collected to cover management, operating and maintenance budgets, and the staffing number per unit area were found as average 103%, 0.94 and 0.003 persons/ha, respectively. In the second stage, the irrigation water management was tested and assessed by the Logit model taking farmers perceptions concerning satisfaction with taking irrigation service. The probability of the satisfaction in irrigation fee policy and maintenance of irrigation and drainage canals was significant at 0.01 and 0.05 levels, respectively. Most of participants (80%) who use water from the KIS have been satisfied with taking service from the Karacabey Water Users’ Association. According to the research results, it may be claim that the management with regard to physical performance was negative; on the other hand, the management with regard to financial performance and water user satisfaction was positive.

Key words: Irrigation management, performance indicators, water user association, logit model, farmer satisfaction.
 

International Journal of Irrigation and Water Management ISSN 2756-3804 Vol. 12 (1), pp. 001-0009, January, 2025. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Understanding Smallholder Farmers' Perceptions of Climate Change in Rumphi District, Malawi

Chakufwa Kaulanda Munthali¹, Victor Kasulo²* and Swithern Matamula³

¹Ipas Malawi, Private Bag 20, Lilongwe, Malawi.
²Mzuzu University, Directorate of Research, P/Bag 201, Mzuzu 2, Malawi.
³Swithern Matamula, Mzuzu University, Department of Water Resources Management, P/Bag 201, Mzuzu 2, Malawi.

Received 26 June, 2024; Accepted 3 October, 2024

Abstract

The effects and causes of climate change and variability have been a cause of controversy and debate for many years in many parts of the developing world. Perceptions vary about the effects and causes of climate change and variability. This study assessed smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate variability and climate change adaptation in Bolero Community, Rumphi district in northern Malawi. Data were generated through a knowledge, attitude and practice survey using semi-structured interview and focus group discussions targeting 100 respondents in the study area. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. The results revealed that 76% of the farmers that were interviewed perceived increased temperatures and 74% perceived decreased rainfall. Results on temperature were supported by meteorological data but rainfall data for Bolero area showed no significant changes overtime. Results, however, demonstrate increased awareness by smallholder farmers about the meaning of climate change and variability but are mixed on actual causes of this due to insufficient scientific knowledge. Some relate it to human activity while others associate it to traditional, cultural, and religious practices. Among the few who believe their own human activity contributes to the situation, they feel that easy access to markets, credit, water resources, irrigation services, tree seedlings and information on climate change, can motivate them to adopt coping and adaptation mechanisms to climate change and variability. Thus, it is important to improve the scientific knowledge of smallholder farmers in understanding the causes of climate change and variability through increasing the level of awareness among smallholder farmers about the impact and causes of climate change and variability. Furthermore, more programmes that motivate farmers to adopt coping and adaptation mechanisms in dealing with climate change and variability are needed. Such projects should consider cultural and traditional beliefs of smallholder farmers.

Key words: Adaptation, adoption, climate change, coping mechanism, Malawi, perception.