100
HOUSING AND HOUSEHOLD AMENITIES
Figure 10.2: Percentage of households with access to safe drinking water, by province
Sanitation Safe disposal of human excreta creates the irst barrier to
excreta-related disease, helping to reduce transmission through direct and indirect – for example, animal and
insect – routes. The 2011-12 NRVA found that 8.3 percent of the population used improved sanitation
facilities
Table 10.5.
3
Compared with NRVA 2007-08, the present survey shows relative improvement up from
5 percent, but in absolute terms the share of the population with improved sanitation remained very low. The most commonly-used sanitation facilities are a covered latrine and open pit respectively 57 percent and 19 percent;
both considered unimproved data not shown. Darean and open ield or bush open defecation are used by 15 percent of the population. The situation for the urban population is considerably better, as here up to 29 percent of the population
has access to improved sanitation.
WHO and UNICEF recently apply a more reined deinition of the quality of sanitation, by distinguishing private and shared facilities within the category of improved sanitation WHO-UNICEF 2013. Using this additional criterion, only 6
percent of the population – 19 percent in urban areas, 2 percent in rural areas and none of the Kuchi – rely on the most adequate method for sanitation.
3 Improved sources of drinking water in NRVA include: hand pump private or public, bored wells, protected spring, piped water private or municipal; un- improved sources include: surface water open well, unprotected spring, kariz, river, lake, channel, pool, drainage, water tanker, bottled water.
MDG Indicator 7.9
Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility
3
8.3 percent
101
HOUSING AND HOUSEHOLD AMENITIES
Table 10.5: Population, by use of improved sanitation
a
, access privacy, and by residence in percentages
Residence Use of improved sanitation, access privacy
With access Without access
Total Private
Shared Total
Private Shared
Total Private
Shared Total
Urban 19.0
10.0 29.1
43.5 27.4
70.9 62.5
37.5 100.0
Rural 1.9
0.5 2.4
68.7 28.9
97.6 70.6
29.4 100.0
Kuchi 0.0
0.0 0.0
24.3 75.7
100.0 24.3
75.7 100.0
National 5.7
2.7 8.3
60.5 31.1
91.7 66.2
33.8 100.0
a
Improved sanitation includes lush latrine, improved latrine and covered latrine; un-improved sanitation includes open pit, darean and open defecation.
10.3.2 Other household amenities
Road access For around 10 percent of households it was reported that access to the dwelling was possible by a paved road, whereas
32 percent could only be reached by a footpath. The remainder – 58 percent had direct access by an unpaved road. The accessibility in urban areas is better, as almost one-third of households had access by paved road and only 18 percent
could only be accessed by a footpath.
Overall, 61 percent of Afghan households live in a community that can be reached by drivable road and for 80 percent Figure 10.3 the distance to the nearest drivable road is two kilometres or less. For 11 percent of the households this
distance is more than ive kilometres. However, for about 30 percent of the households, the nearest drivable road to the community is not passable throughout the year and only 59 percent of households have all-year access by drivable
road in a distance of two kilometres or less from the community. The period in which most roads are impassable are the winter months of Jady, Dalwa and Hoot around half-December to half-March, and to a lesser extent late autumn Qaws
– November-December and early spring Hamal – March-April. In Badakhshan, Bamyan, Daykundi, Ghor, Nooristan, Panshjer and Zabul more than half of the households cannot use the nearest drivable road in winter time.
Figure 10.3: Households, by distance to the nearest drivable road to the community, and by residence in percentages
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
90 100
Urban Rural
Kuchi National
Within community 1-2 kilometres
3-5 kilometres 6-10 kilometres
11-20 kilometres More than 20 kilometres
102
HOUSING AND HOUSEHOLD AMENITIES
Nationally, for 43 percent of the households NRVA 2011-12 reports an improvement in road access to the community in the three years preceding the survey
