Evaluating the Challenges of Unavailability of Safe Water in Omogwu Through Theatre for Development Approach

Abstract

Rural areas in Nigeria have been faced with several social amenity’s issues over of the years. One of such issues is lack of safe water for consumption. Some of the factors responsible for these problems seem to be the inability of the people to protect and maintain their water sources like rivers, lakes and the few water projects that were built for them by either individuals or the government. As a result of the aforementioned problems, the people depend on unsafe water for drinking and cooking. Thus, they are faced with certain water born-diseases. Obviously, the need to address these problems is sacrosanct. It is based on this backdrop that the study seeks to investigate the potential of Theatre for Development in addressing the issues in context using Omogwu Community, Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State as paradigm. The paper adopted oral interview technique of the qualitative research methodology to gather its data. Through this method the researchers interacted orally with relevant respondents in the target area, using a tape recorder to gather their responses and transcripted them into written document through the use of note books and pen. The results realized from the findings revealed that rural areas in Nigeria, due to certain factors have no access to safe water and they are also challenged with issues of water born-diseases. The work concludes that Theatre for Development has the potential to address the problems of access to safe water and the related consequences on the people of Omogwu, Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State. Hence, it recommends that the approach should be employed to address the identified challenges for a safe water.