Perception and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change-Related Water Risks Among Residents of Afijio Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria

This study was conducted to assess perception and adaptation strategies to climate change-related water risks among residents of Afijio Local Government Area (LGA), Oyo state, Nigeria. This is a cross-sectional study that utilized random sampling technique to select 230 respondents. Interview was conducted using a validated interviewer administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square test at p=0.05. Respondents’ mean age was 37.0±17.2years, 57.8% were female while 72.6% had attained secodary education. Majority (73.5%) of the respondents agreed that changing rainfall patterns could increase flood risk, 72.6% agreed that climate change could cause irregular water supply during the dry season while 70.4% believed that communities in the area are vulnerable to water scarcity. The mean perception score was 10.1±2.9, 68.3% had negative perception about climate change-related water risks. Fifteen (15.0%) percent of the respondents reported that water scarcity had affected household health while 10.9% reported that children’s schooling was affected due to poor hygiene-related challenges. Significantly, 52.0% of respondents who reported that climate change-related water risk affected children schooling had negative perception compared to 48.0% who had positive perception (χ 2 =3.423, p-value=0.034). The three major adaptation strategies to water scarcity mentioned by the respondents were digging of wells (21.7%), storage of rainwater (20.0%) and drilled boreholes (10.9%). Only 36.5% reported changing their farming practices in response to water challenges while 18.7% ever received any support to cope with climate-related water challenges. Respondents had negative perception and had experienced several impacts of climate change-related water risk. Very few respondents had ever received any support to cope with climate-related water challenges. There is need for a public health interventions focusing on more systematic support to transform awareness into broad resilience on climate change-related water risks at community level.