Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to assess urban households’ domestic water demand and supply
in Fincha town. In order to achieve these objectives, primary data were collected from 331
randomly selected households and 12 respondents purposively selected from three offices for
interview purpose. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected by using instruments
of data collection include, questionnaires, interviews and field observation. The collected data
were analyzed with descriptive statistics and presented by using frequency, percentage, pie
chart, and bar graphs. The study has confirmed that Fincha town water supply service could
not cover the demand of households with present existing capacity. The result obtained
indicated that the major factors attributed to lower supply of water are inadequate water
supply, unfair distribution of water, high cost of piped water connection, lack of capacity,
limited budget; poor coordination and participation of stake holders, frequent interruption
and rapid population growth particularly made the provision of water supply services difficult
in the area. As a result 34.2 percent of the respondents have used water from alternatives
sources. Although, safe and adequate quantity of drinking water is an essential in put for life,
however, the efforts made by the state government have not been enough in addressing all
dwellers of Fincha town. Thus, to narrow the existing widened gap between water demand and
supply, there should be an urgent need for planed action to construct additional water supply
sources and simultaneously improving the current coverage of private pipe water distribution
and also public fountains in favor of the lower income group.
