Other household amenities percent

213 Figure 12.6: Population, by access to improved sanitation, and by province in percentages

12.3.2 Other household amenities

In addition to water and sanitation, the status of other household amenities reflects the household’s quality of life as well. For instance, road access and communication means strengthen the household’s connection to the country as a whole and facilitate access to markets, health facilities and schools; electric lights enable more reading, education and home production; new fuels and improved stoves provide a cleaner environment and better health; better conditions for cooking reduces women domestic drudgery and increases the time devoted to other activities. Road access Overall, almost 93 percent of households reported to have access to their dwellings by an unpaved or paved road that is in a distance of less than 1 kilometer Figure 12.7 , whereas only for around 39 percent of the households access by a paved road was possible Figure 12.8 . This shows a remarkable progress in comparison to the data derived from the NRVA 2011-12 survey, when those percentages where 61 percent and 10 percent, respectively. 214 Figure 12.7: Households, by distance to the nearest paved or unpaved road, and by residence type in percentages The accessibility in urban areas is considerably better than in rural areas and among the Kuchi population. Almost 100 percent of the urban population has near access to roads and 80 percent to paved roads, while the access in the places of residence of rural population is overall significantly high more than 90 percent, even though it decreases to 25 percent of households if only near paved roads are considered. Kuchi households have also low percentage access to near paved roads 25 percent, but a much larger access 77 percent if also unpaved roads are taken into account, always at less than 1 kilometer from their place of residence. Figure 12.8: Households, by distance to the nearest paved road, and by residence type in percentages However, when road access is investigated at community level, only 39.3 percent of the households reported an improvement in the last three years, and 30.5 percent reported a deterioration. The NRVA 2011-12 survey reported 42.6 and 20.0 percent, respectively. Such perception from people is particularly 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 National Urban Rural Kuchi P er ce n tag es Less than 1 kilometre 1-5 kilometres 5-20 kilometres More than 20 kilometres 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 National Urban Rural Kuchi P er ce n tag es Less than 1 kilometre 1-2 kilometres 3-5 kilometres 6-10 kilometres 11-20 kilometres 21-50 kilometres More than 50 kilometres 215 high among rural population Figure 12.9 , and may be due to a reduced maintenance of roads in recent years in comparison to road conditions in early 2010’s. Figure 12.9: Households, by residence type, and by changed road condition of road access to the community, in percentages At provincial level differences exist, with more improved access in Kabul, Kandahar and Ghazni, compared to situations with the most deteriorated access in the provinces of Nooristan, Badakhshan, Samangan and Balkh data not shown. Source of electricity Lack of access to electricity profoundly limits economic development, constrains people’s life chances and favorites poverty. ALCS data 63 – and previously NRVA data – show that the proportion of Afghan households with access to electricity has strongly increased since 2007-08, and it is still increasing. Starting from 42 percent as reported by the 2007-08 survey, it covered 69 percent of the households in 2011-12 and nowadays reaches 90 percent at national level, as reported by the 2013-14 ALCS. Urban households are covered up to 99 percent and rural households up to 88 percent. The Kuchi population has access to electricity for 71 percent of the households Figure 12.10 . The electric grid is used by 29 percent of households, a figure that has slightly increased in a two years period from 26 percent in 2011-12. This is the primary source of electrical power in urban areas, being used by 85 percent of households compared to the rural areas where only eleven percent of households used this source. Sustainable energy sources – solar and wind energy – are the most frequently reported sources of energy. Wind energy is insignificant, but solar power is available to 48 percent of the households in Afghanistan. The spread of solar power is a remarkable success story: NRVA 2007-08 recorded 2 percent of households with solar panels, NRVA 2011-12 recorded 22 percent and this proportion is more than doubled in the present ALCS with 48 percent. This is the most common source of electricity in rural areas and among Kuchi population. Generators – either private or from the 63 Households that used electricity at any time in the last month before the interview. 58.8 32.9 39.3 8.8 37.6 30.5 -60 -40 -20 20 40 60 80 Urban Rural National P er ce n tag e Improved Deteriorated 216 community or the government – are rarely used, and then mainly in rural areas. Batteries, being a moveable source, are important for the nomadic Kuchi. Figure 12.10: Households with access to different sources of electricity, by residence type in percentages Fuel for cooking and heating Cooking and heating fuels have aroused increasing interest over the past twenty years because wood harvesting has caused extensive deforestation, and because they produce greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. Cooking with biomass fuels on open fires also causes significant health problems. The nature of the exposure to indoor air pollution and its consequences for health depends on the interactions between the source of pollution fuel and stove type, its dispersion housing structure and ventilation and on the presence of household members at home. Solid fuels such as wood, crop residues or animal dung continued to be used by a large number of households worldwide, for their cooking and heating needs. Consequently, the household air pollution caused by such solid fuels is responsible for an important number of deaths and disabilities WHO 2015. The proportion of population using solid fuels, considered in the ALCS and NRVA surveys, is not an official indicator for MDG 7 – ensuring environmental sustainability. However, it still used in many countries as a supplementary MDG indicator to measure the Target 7.A of MDG 7 “Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources ”. As such, it also figures in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy. Table 12.8 provides the percentage of the households using solid and non-solid fuels as the primary source of domestic energy for cooking and heating. In Afghanistan, the use of solid fuel is quite common for heating, and three fourths of the households use it for cooking as well, in particular in rural areas and in Kuchi dwellings. Urban households are primarily using gas for cooking data not shown. Solid fuels include biomass fuels, such as bushes, wood, charcoal, crops or other agricultural waste, animal dung and coal. 90 99 88 71 48 12 60 58 29 88 11 12 4 14 25 10 4 13 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 National Urban Rural Kuchi P er cen tag e Any source Solar and wind Electric grid Battery Generator 217 In comparison to NRVA 2011-12, the use of solid fuels for both cooking and heating has slightly reduced with 4.0 and 2.3 percentage points at national level, respectively. Around 15 percent of Kuchi households reported not to use any type of heating during the winter season. For rural households, bushes, firewood and animal dung are the most important cooking fuels, whereas firewood is the preferred fuel for heating, followed by bushes and animal dung data not shown. Table 12.8: Households, by use of solid fuels for cooking and heating in winter and no heating, and by residence type in percentages Residence Solid fuel No Cooking Heating heating National 75.9 95.1 1.7 Urban 27.2 90.0 0.7 Rural 90.7 97.7 1.1 Kuchi 98.2 84.4 15.6 Information and communication means It is clear that Information and Communication Technology ICT has an impact in many aspects of the development process of a country, for instance on economic development, human capacity, gender equality, health, environment and education. It has also relevance in everyday life of people. Telephones, computers and internet allow people to exchange experiences and learn from each other, enabling higher returns on investment and avoiding problems of duplication or missing information. They can also help people in rural areas to find out about market prices and sell their products at a better price, and can overcome traditional barriers to better education by making books and documentation available online. They can also make governments more transparent, thereby reducing corruption and leading to better governance. The use of these technologies is included in the MDG Target 8.F “In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications ”. The MDG indicators are: i 8.14 - Fixed-telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants; ii 8.15 - Mobile-cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants; and iii 8.16 - Internet users per 100 inhabitants. The 2013-14 ALCS collected data for the indicators 8.15 and 8.16, which are also part of the ANDS indicators 19.a and 19.b. Mobile cellular telephone is becoming the predominant method of communications in many countries. Its use is therefore a fundamental indicator of the information society. Mobile cellular subscribers refer to users of such telephones with either post-paid subscriptions or pre-paid accounts. The use of mobile phones in Afghanistan is still low in international comparison, even though other data sources suggest that users have rapidly increased in the last years, covering three fourths of the entire Afghan population. 64 According to 2013-14 ALCS results, there are only 17 mobile phones per 100 population, a figure that refers to mobile cellular subscriptions effectively used by single subscribers of mobile telephones. The figure in urban areas is almost twice as high 30 per 100 population, but lower for rural and Kuchi populations 14 and 8 per 100 population, respectively. It seems that the present overall figure has not changed much in the last years, since NRVA 2011-12 reported 14 mobile phones per 100 64 MDG data on the official MGD UN web site reports that the subscriptions in 2014 are almost 75 of every 100 inhabitants, http:mdgs.un.orgunsdmdgData.aspx. This figure may include more than one subscriptions for the same inhabitants. ANDS Indicator 19.a MDG Indicator 8.15 Mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 17.3 218 population. There is also a geographical variation in this respect, since some provinces – like Kabul, Panjsher, Kapisa, Logar – are scoring above the country average, and others like Ghor and Badghis have very low proportions. Different sources confirm that the use of internet is still reserved for extremely small pockets in the population. ALCS data shows that just over 1 percent of the population used internet in the twelve months preceding the survey. This share was 1.9 percent for males, 0.5 percent for females and 3.8