Tenancy and dwelling characteristics

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12.1 Introduction

The housing situation of a population is often a direct reflection of their living conditions and socio- economic development. Insufficient income force people to live in dwellings with low conditions. Inappropriate housing may have consequences towards promiscuity, lesser protection against diseases, difficulty to sleep and rest, difficulty for children to do school homework, fire hazards, family conflicts, lesser social interaction, etc. Poverty may also entail inability to afford heating, cooking and cooling, and basic household amenities. Often, sanitation systems are insufficient, drinking water unavailable or remote, evacuation and rescue difficult in emergencies. In some poor neighbourhoods, waste is not removed, thus creating sources of epidemics and other health problems. Poor neighbourhoods also often lack schools, playing grounds, sports and entertainment facilities, and may sometimes be unsafe. Lack of access to transport and telephone makes it more difficult to find work or to exert an independent economic activity. Difficulties in road access limits both access to work and to recreation. Poverty of the household makes it impossible sometimes to pay for electricity or to be connected to the power network, thus depriving low-income households of commodities as well as of the possibility to improve their living standards through productive activities that require electrical energy. Despite different initiative taken by the Government and the International Community, an important proportion of the Afghan population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, adequate sanitation, electricity, means of communication, access to transportation, both in rural and urban areas with sometimes big differences between provinces. In addition, an important number of internally displaced people and former refugees now live in informal settlements located in or around the major cities of the country, like Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kandahar. Indeed, rapid urban growth has been fuelled by the repatriation of refugees, the arrival of IDPs and by the economic migration from rural areas. Therefore, in specific areas of the country, housing conditions are particularly poor and slum dwellers are particularly numerous. This chapter describes different housing characteristics, including the tenancy status section 12.2.1, dwelling characteristics 12.2.2 and various facilities usually related to the housing situation, such as water supply and sanitation, sources of electricity, but also available communication and information means. Consequently, the chapter also covers several related MDG indicators, including the access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

12.2 Tenancy and dwelling characteristics

12.2.1 Tenancy The types of arrangements based on which Afghan households occupy dwellings confirm that most of the Afghan households own the units where they live around 89 percent in 2013-2014 and in 2011-12. The majority of households who own a dwelling is considerably higher in rural areas 95 percent than in urban areas 73. Table 12.1 shows the distribution of households by tenancy status in urban and rural areas and among Kuchis. The owned dwellings include inherited units or units provided by the family, purchased dwellings, and dwellings constructed by the household. 204 Table 12.1: Households, by tenancy status of the dwelling, and by residence type in percentages Residence Total Inheritance Purchased Constructed Tenant Own - Other or from dwelling dwelling renting given free, family charity National 100.0 50.6 12.5 23.2 5.9 2.6 5.2 Urban 100.0 29.0 26.6 14.8 21.2 2.3 6.2 Rural 100.0 60.3 6.5 26.0 1.1 2.4 3.7 Kuchi 100.0 16.1 30.8 23.9 0.4 7.8 21.0 Within the group of households who own their occupied dwellings, it is interesting to observe that the percentage of constructed dwellings has increased in comparison to the 2011-12 NRVA round from about 18 percent to 23, and that the percentage of dwellings inherited or received from families has decreased, from about 59 percent to 53. The percentage of households living in constructed dwellings is higher among rural and kuchi population, in comparison with urban population. Renting is confirmed to be a more common practice in urban areas, while it is insignificant in rural areas and among Kuchi groups. Households occupying temporary dwellings on the basis of a mortgage or other arrangements are everywhere small numbers Table 12.1 and Figure 12.1 . Due to the nomadic characteristics of the Kuchis, housing data for this population group would require further analysis and interpretation, which goes beyond the aim of the present report. Figure 12.1: Households, by tenancy status, and by residence type in percentages At provincial level, the presence of relatively large size cities located along the main commercial routes of the country such as Kabul, Jalalabad, Zaranj and Mazar-i-Sharif make those provinces below the national average in terms of percentages of dwellings owning their dwellings. On the contrary, predominantly rural provinces have in general values above the Afghan average Figure 12.2 . 53 31 63 24 13 27 6 31 23 15 26 24 6 21 1 4 6 3 1 1 1 20 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Total Urban Rural Kuchi P er ce n tag e Inherited or given Purchased dwelling Constructed dwelling Renting Other temporary arrangement Other arrangement 205 Figure 12.2: Percentage of households owning their dwelling, by province 12.2.2 Dwelling characteristics About 67 percent of Afghan households live in single-family houses, and one-fourth in shared houses. While the majority of single-family houses are located in rural areas, most of the shared houses are in urban areas, where also almost all the apartments are located. As expected, the percentages of tents and temporary shelters are significant only for the Kuchi population Table 12.2 . Table 12.2: Households, by type of dwelling, and by residence type in percentages Residence Total Single Part of a Apartment Tent Temporary Other family shared shelter house house shack National 100.0 66.9 25.6 0.5 4.5 2.4 0.2 Urban 100.0 52.1 42.8 1.6 0.2 3.1 0.2 Rural 100.0 76.2 21.5 0.1 0.2 1.9 0.1 Kuchi 100.0 5.3 1.2 0.0 86.4 6.4 0.7 The majority of the dwellings inhabited by Afghan households have been constructed after 1995 60.1 percent, of which 20.8 between 2005 and 2009, 12.2 between 2012 and 2012, and 2.6 between 2013 and 2014. These percentages do not include the 85 percent of Kuchi dwellings identified as tents. At provincial level, 28 provinces out of 34 have similar percentages of relatively recent dwellings, close to the national average between 40 to 80 percent. On the contrary, in Kapisa, Paktya, Zabul and Nimroz almost all the dwellings have been constructed in the last 20 years, while in Herat and Khost the majority of households are living in old dwellings Figure 12.3 . 206 Figure 12.3: Percentage of dwellings constructed since 1995, by province Traditional mud houses continue to form the majority of housing in Afghanistan. They are characterised by external walls made of mud bricks 68 percent in 2014 and 64 percent in 2011-12 and roofs constructed with wood and mud 74 percent in 2014 and 63 in 2011-12. Houses are constructed also with stones and mud, especially in rural areas and among the Kuchi population not living in tents almost 20 percent at country level. Concrete houses and houses with fired brick stones are almost only located in urban areas and cover only about 7 percent of the entire residential housing stock of the country Table 12.3 . Table 12.3: Households, by main construction of material external walls, and by residence type in percentages Residence Total Fired brick Concrete Mud bricks Stone Other stone mud mud National 100.0 7.8 3.6 68.2 19.6 0.9 Urban 100.0 22.7 11.5 57.8 7.2 0.7 Rural 100.0 2.8 0.9 72.0 23.5 0.9 Kuchi 101.0 1.0 1.0 44.6 45.8 8.7 207 The number of rooms per dwelling is similar for urban and rural households. Around one-third of these dwellings have two rooms and close to another 40 percent has three or four rooms. Kuchi households lives in the majority in one tent, and in about 30 percent in 2 tents Figure 12.4 . Those figures are very similar to those derived from the 2011-12 NRVA survey. Figure 12.4: Households, by number of rooms in the dwelling, and by residence type in percentages Slums are an evident manifestation of non-adequate living conditions of large parts of populations, are forms of housing inequalities, and places where homeless people usually live. The United Nations uses five characteristics defining a slum: i overcrowding; ii inadequate access to safe water; iii inadequate access to sanitation and infrastructure; iv poor structural quality of housing; v insecure residential status. UN-Habitat defines overcrowding as dwellings with more than three persons per room UN- Habitat 2007. At national level, the average number of persons per room is around 3, similar to what was reported for the 2011-12 NRVA survey. Urban and rural areas have the same share, while for the Kuchi population, the rate is still around 5 persons per room. Overall, 43 percent of the Afghan population lives in overcrowded housing conditions. The effects of overcrowding include an increased risk of infectious diseases transmission for a wide range of diseases, and negative social behaviours, such as domestic violence and child abuse, and negative outcomes of education and child development. ALCS 2013-14 shows that 40 percent of all households in Afghanistan live in such overcrowded dwellings. For Kuchi households, the share is even 70 percent, as for the 2011-12 NRVA survey. The target No. 7.d of the MDG Goal 7 ‘Ensure environmental sustainability’, aims at achieving a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. Its progress indicator is the proportion of urban population living in slums. This indicator is measured by a proxy, represented by the urban population living in households with at least one of the four characteristics: a lack of access to improved water supply; b lack of access to improved sanitation; c overcrowding more than three persons per room; and d dwellings made of non-durable material. 10 20 30 40 50 60 1 room 2 rooms 3 rooms 4 rooms 5 rooms 6 rooms More than 6 rooms P er ce n tag e Total Urban Rural Kuchi 208 Based on the 2013-2014 ALCS, it is estimated that the slum population living in urban areas is about 5.0 million people. The NRVA 2011-12 concluded providing similar figures, about 5.3 million people, showing a limited decrease in absolute numbers. However, the percentage of urban population living in slums has reduced about 13 percentage points from 87 to 74 percent, showing an overall considerable progress in living conditions in urban areas, and an important achievement in terms of the MDG target, even if Afghanistan remains the country in the region with the highest proportion of slums dwellers. 62

12.3 Household amenities