ABSTRACT
This study employs the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software to assess water demand in Benin City, Nigeria, amidst urbanization, population growth, and climate change. The objectives include quantifying current and future water demand, evaluating water source sustainability, and proposing management strategies. This research informs sustainable water resource management in the face of urban challenges. Data from various sources, including the United Nations and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), were incorporated into WEAP after conversion to .csv format. This data included population, agricultural, and climate information. Three demand nodes, representing Benin City's domestic, agricultural, and other demands, were created in WEAP simulations. Nine scenarios, including a reference scenario, were formulated and analyzed for this study. The results analyzed for all the scenarios was Water Demand, Demand Coverage Site and the Unmet Demand. From the results obtained, the scenario that gave the highest unmet demand of 3.964BCM was the combined scenario which compromised of increase in population growth rate, increase in agricultural area, cropping pattern of planting one crop alone and increase in water use rate. While the scenario with a water use rate of 100l/c/d gave the lowest unmet demand of 200MCM. It has been shown that when demand declines, the unmet demand also declines proportionally, and vice versa. Therefore, demand management strategies should be implemented and effectively applied among the city's residents. Due to Benin City's consistently rising population growth rate, it should also be considered to expand the current distribution system (pumps, reservoirs) in order to maximize water supply.
