DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2016.v04i01.009

Pages: 52-56

One of the basic necessities of man’s life is water, especially fresh water. However, regardless of quality, rivers the world over supply substantial volume of water for man’s diverse uses. Rivers in form of drainage basin is more than a geomopologic unit, it is also a hydranlic and hydrological unit having a unifying factor in water as a natural resource. A river channel with or without water possessess a utility that contributes to the livelihood of the people within and beyond it.This paper assess the contribution of Moron River Basin situated in the north-east part of Gombe to the livelihood of the communities residing within the basin. The work observed the uses of river system in the work of multidisplinary analysis of the Lake Chad Basin by Neitherland and Bene in 2002 and compared it with that of Morom River Basin in order to explore areas of similirities and more importantly to show case how Morom River Basin is put to use to alliviate poverty. A field questionnaire survey was conducted and the collected data were summrized in terms of means, proportions, and percentages and tested using chi-square statistical analysis.This study shows how Morom River Basin contributes significantly to the livelihood of communities where thousand of of people obtains their livelihood resources from the rivers. Furthermore, hypotheses tested revealed that the river basin significan influences the livelihood of the people and that the settlement pattern of the area is significantly related to the river system.