Housing type and ownership

94 Housing

9.2.2 Housing characteristics

The construction materials of Afghan dwellings are relatively uniform, especially for rural and resident Kuchi households. A typical Afghan house is made of mud brick walls, a wooden roof and has a dirt floor Table 9.2. Urban houses somewhat deviate from this general picture in the sense that concrete is a more common building material, especially for floors, as well as bricks and stone. Thereby, they provide more durable shelter than the traditional Afghan house. Table 9.2 Household dwellings, by residence, and by dwelling part, construction material in percentages Construction materials Residence Urban Rural Kuchi National

a. Construction material of walls

Fired brickstone 17 4 1 7 Concrete 5 1 Mud bricks mud 78 90 91 88 Other 5 8 4 Total 100 100 100 100 b. Construction material of roof Concrete 10 2 Wood 72 81 86 79 Bricks 16 17 12 17 Other 2 2 2 2 Total 100 100 100 100 c. Construction material of floor Dirt earth 60 98 100 90 Concrete tile 38 2 9 Other 1 Total 100 100 100 100 The most frequently observed numbers of rooms per dwelling for rural Afghan households are two and three, whereas for urban households it is three and four Table 9.3, panel a. The distribution for Kuchis is measured in number of tents. Altogether, three-quarters of Kuchi households live in one or two tents. The consequence of this is visible in the average number of occupants per tent, which is 6.4 in the 43 percent of the Kuchi dwellings that consist of one tent only panel b. A clear pattern can be observed in panel b of Table 9.3: the fewer rooms a dwelling has, the larger is the average number of household members per room. The overcrowding that is especially reported for the smallest dwellings, indicates a relatively poor status of households occupying these small houses. It also indicates adverse health conditions for its members, among other things facilitating the spread of infectious diseases. The effect is more frequently reported for rural than for urban households; the overall average number of persons per dwelling is also lower for urban households than for their rural counterparts 2.1 and 2.7 persons per room, respectively. Overall, one-third 34 percent of Afghan households can be considered overcrowded, meaning that on average more than three people share one room. Housing 95 Table 9.3 Dwellings, a by residence, and by number of rooms in percentages; b average number of occupants, by residence, and by number of rooms Number of rooms a. Residence percentage b. Residence mean occupancy Urban Rural Kuchi Total Urban Rural Kuchi Total 1 2 8 43 9 5.4 5.7 6.4 5.9 2 16 28 33 26 3.2 3.2 3.8 3.3 3 25 29 14 27 2.3 2.4 2.9 2.4 4 27 19 5 20 1.9 2.0 2.7 1.9 5 11 7 2 8 1.5 1.7 2.2 1.7 6 9 4 1 5 1.4 1.5 1.7 1.5 7 3 1 2 1.2 1.3 2.0 1.3 8 3 1 2 1.0 1.1 1.8 1.1 9 1 0.9 1.1 0.9 1.1 10 or more 2 1 1 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.8 Total 100 100 100 100 2.1

2.7 4.7

2.7

9.3 Housing facilities

9.3.1 Water and sanitation

Basic hygiene provided by safe drinking water and adequate sanitation are the most effective strategies to improve the health status of the population. There is evidence that globally provision of adequate sanitation services, safe water supply, and hygiene education represents an effective health intervention that reduces the mortality caused by diarrhoeal disease by an average of 65 percent, and the related morbidity by 26 percent WHO 2000. Inadequate sanitation, hygiene and water result not only in more sickness and death, but also in higher health costs, lower worker productivity and lower school enrollment. Access to improved water sources and sanitation are built into the indicator set to monitor the progress towards the targets of the Millennium Development Goals see Boxes on MDG indicators 7.8 and 7.9 below. Water supply The inventory of community preferences for development among male and female Shuras emphasized the importance of water supply, as they assigned it top priority see Section 11.3. Overall access to safe drinking water in Afghanistan is calculated at 27 percent of the population. Large differences in the share with access are observed between the urban population on the one hand and the rural and Kuchi populations on the other Table 9.4, Similar differences exist between the provinces Figure 9.2. The present figures are somewhat lower than those of the 2005 NRVA 31 percent overall, 1 and a little higher than the MICS 2003 finding of 23 percent 2 . However, different questionnaire designs and data collection methodologies prohibit direct comparison. Table 9.4 Percentage of the total population with access to a safe drinking water, b improved sanitation, and by esidence Residence and province Access to a. Safe drinking water b. Improved sanitation Urban 58 21 Rural 20 1 Kuchi 16 Total 27 5 _____________________________________________ 1 Among other things, NRVA 2005 included water supply from water tankers and from bottled water in the category of safe drinking water, which is not in line with international guidelines. If these types of water supply are included in the 20078 figure, the population share with access to safe drinking water rises to 28 percent. 2 The UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for the year 2003 did not include Kuchis. If the NRVA 20078 data would similarly be restricted to urban and rural populations, the population share with access to safe drinking water rises to 28 percent. There are, however, additional factors that complicate comparability. Housing 96 Figure 9.2 Percentage of the total population with access to safe drinking water, by province Next to the quality of water, the very access to water is a key factor in the provision of hygiene and adequate living conditions. Overall, for 42 percent of the households immediate access to water with no travel time is available. The corresponding figures for the urban, rural and Kuchi households are, respectively, 75, 35 and 21 percent. It takes up to half an hour to fetch water return trip for over half of the Kuchi and rural households and for just under one quarter of the urban households. Around 8 and 4 percent of the, respectively, Kuchi and rural households need more than one hour. The NRVA 20078 figures suggest an improvement compared to the 2005 results, as the overall share that had access to water within one hour increased from 86 to 97 percent. 3 Sanitation Safe disposal of human excreta creates the first barrier to excreta-related disease, helping to reduce transmission through direct and indirect – for example, animal and insect – routes. The 20078 NRVA found that 21 percent of the urban population had access to adequate sanitation facilities, but only 1 percent of the rural population and almost no Kuchis. Overall, access to improved sanitation was 5 percent Table 9.4. These figures would imply a decrease in the share compared to 2005, when the NRVA reported improved sanitation for 7 percent of the total population. 4 For sanitation purposes some 25 percent of the population use open field or ‘darean’, a place inside or outside the compound used for waste products. For the other types of sanitation combined, 89 percent of the population has access to sanitation within the compound 99 for urban, 87 for rural and 67 for the Kuchi population and 22 percent shares the sanitation facility with other households. _____________________________________________ 3 Based on survey months July and August for reasons of comparability with NRVA 2005. 4 A decrease in access to improved sanitation is difficult to explain. Seasonal and methodological effects are not in order, although fast population growth could have some impact.