ABSTRACT
The need for water cannot be overemphasized as water is crucial for healthy living. Despite this, access to portable water in many urban areas still remain a huge challenge. Giving that attempts are being made to surmount water problems of cities, little is being done to overcome water problems of peripheral settlements. Most studies on water delivery have rather emphasize the urban challenge, combined both core and periphery which has fallen short of reporting the difficulty residents of periphery are faced with in order to meet daily water needs. The research narrows to investigating water supply and demand characteristics resulting to urban management challenges as a result of water supply problems of these areas. Data collection and analysis was conducted in 70% of the identified peripheral settlements of Kaduna metropolis. A sample size of 0.5% of 61,182 household constituted 305 questionnaires, from which only 269 were retrieved for analysis. Results revealed poor access to pipe borne water and over dependence on boreholes and wells, which lacks the capacity of supplying the required water quantity. Attempts to meet needs is responsible for patronage of water vendors with high cost and health implications. The hope to secure pipe borne supply from the metropolis is far-fetched as the KSWB lacks the capacity to meet water demand of the metropolitan core let alone the periphery. To address the water supply shortage of peripheral settlements, there is the need to plan and manage new growth points. Also to ensure that commercial borehole operators are organized to supply water to existing peripheral settlements at regulated price; and the capacities of existing water treatment plants serving the metropolis be increased to cater for the excess population of the core as well as the periphery. Pipe borne supplies to peripheral settlements should commence with those that currently have provision for supply.