ABSTRACT
This research work employs the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software to assess water demand and supply 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 water conservation and management strategies. This research informs sustainable water resource management in the face of urban challenges. Data from various sources, including Internet sources, the United Nations, and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) were incorporated into WEAP. This data included population and agricultural data. The reference account was set as from 2025-2048. Two demand nodes, representing Benin City's domestic and agricultural demand sites were created in the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model. Land area increase, and population increase, scenarios were formulated and analyzed for this study. The results analyzed for all the scenarios were Water Demand, Demand Coverage Site, and 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 and increase in agricultural area. It has 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) to maximize water supply.
