Municipal water supplies - technology costs

This paper considers the cost of Treated Water Supply vis-a-vis the Technology employed in Ibadan Municipality, the largest City in Black Africa. Serving a population estimated at about 2.0 million, the City's two existing Water Scheme, Eleyele (1942) and Asejire (1972) are analysed both from the viewpoint of the technology employed vis­a-vis the cost of design, construction, main­tenance and rehabilitation. It is shown that unless ways and means of employing a less expensive/indigenous tech­nology is looked into, developing countries will probably continue to depend on loans for the ever rising cost of foreign components, in view of spiralling inflation, in order to finance their most basic necessity of life. Some possible types of appropriate technology that can be employed are suggested with a view to reducing the capital and operational cost thus resulting in lower unit cost of treated water and easier cost recovery.