Introduction

The 2010 Population and Housing Census is the second in the series where a comprehensive data on housing was collected. It provided an official count of all structures within each district. The issues covered in the housing census included the number of dwelling units that are occupied and vacant, type of dwelling, materials used for construction (outer wall, roof and floor), and occupancy status, methods of waste disposal and household utilities and facilities. The information from the housing census serves as a basis for housing planning and human settlement programmes and assessing housing needs and conditions of the population within the context of the Millennium Development Goal 7. This chapter discusses the data on housing conditions in the Banda District.

Housing Stock

Table 8.1 presents stock of houses and households in the country, region and district. Data from the 2010 Population and Housing Census show that the Banda District has 3,685 households (0.8 percent of the regional figure and 0.1 percent of the national figure) and an average household size of 5.5 persons. These are all found in the rural area as Banda District is entirely rural. The average household per house is 1.3 for the district, which is lower than the regional average of 1.5. The number of persons per house is almost the same as that of the country and region (7.1 persons).

Type of Dwelling, Holding and Tenancy Arrangements

Type of dwelling

Table 8.2 presents the type of occupied dwellings units by sex of household head and type of locality of residence in the district. The analysis shows that majority of the households live in separate house which constitute 45.1 percent. This is followed by compound house or rooms (38.5%)) and the households dwelling in other types of dwellings, which are grouped together namely, tent, improvised home (kiosk, container, etc.), living quarters attached to office/shop and uncompleted building form the least proportion (0.8%). The table further depicts that, for male- headed households, 47.3 percent lives in separate house, followed by compound house or rooms (35.3%). In the case of female-headed households, the largest proportion (45.8%) lives in compound house (rooms) and the least proportion dwells in uncompleted house, and huts/buildings in different compound (0.6%).

House ownership status

Table 8.2 presents ownership status of dwelling by sex of the household head in the district. The analysis depicts that, 64.0 percent of the households dwell in houses owned by a household member. This is followed by households dwelling in houses whose owners are relatives who are not household members (19.6%) and other private individuals (11.7%); and the least proportion of households (0.1%) lives in dwelling units owned by other private agencies.

Disaggregation of the data in terms of the sex of the head of household shows that, for male- headed households, majority (65.1%) occupies houses owned by a household member while 17.0 percent and 12.0 percent respectively live in houses owned by relative who is not a household member and other private individual. It is observed that a significantly low proportion of households (0.4%) occupy dwellings owned by other private agency. In the case of female- headed households, it emerged from the analysis that majority (61.5%) of the households lives in houses owned by a household member, followed by households living in houses owned by a relative who is not a household member (25.5%) and dwelling provided by private employer accounted for the least proportion (0.1%).

Construction Materials

The types of materials used for the construction of outer walls, floor and roof of the houses in the district are discussed in terms of both occupied and unoccupied structures. Table 8.4 presents the main construction materials for outer wall of dwelling unit in the district. From Table 8.4, a total of 61.8 percent of the houses are built with mud brick or earth as the main construction material for outer walls. This is followed by structures which had cement blocks or concrete (27.2%) as the main construction material for outer walls. Houses whose outer walls are constructed with bamboo and burnt bricks form the least proportion (0.2%).

Table 8.5 presents main construction materials for the floor of dwelling units in the district. The table shows that 72.4 percent of the housing units have floors made with cement or concrete, followed by earth or mud (23.8%). The results of the analysis indicate that the use of burnt bricks and terrazzo or terrazzo tiles as floor materials is relatively low. This is consistent with the pattern observed among rural communities in the country.

Table 8.6 shows the main material for roofing of dwelling units in the district. It must be noted that the Banda district is purely rural and 73.2 percent of the households live in dwelling units that have metal sheets as the main roofing material. While 22.5 percent of houses are roofed with thatch, palm leaf or raffia, those roofed with slates, asbestos, cement, concrete and roofing tiles form extremely low percentage (see Table 8.6).

Room Occupancy

The number of ‘sleeping rooms’ in dwelling units provides an indication of the extent of crowding in households. As it is internationally accepted the ideal occupancy level is two persons per room and any figure above this threshold is regarded as evidence of overcrowding, which has both health and social implications (GSS, 2013). Table 8.7 presents data on household size and number of sleeping rooms available. The 2010 PHC results show that, the highest proportion of households (45.9%) in the district live in a single room. However, 27.0 percent and 12.8 percent of the households has two and three sleeping rooms respectively. Thus, households living in one – three rooms account for 85.7 percent while those with four or more sleeping rooms account for only 14.3 percent.

An overwhelming majority of single-member households (91.2%) lives in one room. Of households with a size of five, 54.1 percent occupy one room compared to five-member household where 45.1 percent occupy one sleeping room. A total of 39.0 percent of the households with six members occupy two rooms and that of household with seven members is 41.8 percent. The largest proportion (22.2%) of households with 10 or more members occupies three rooms. In fact nearly quarters (73.1%) of households with 10 or members occupy one to four rooms.

The households with membership ranging from seven to ten persons living in one sleeping room could be an indication of overcrowding. This is likely to have adverse implications for the health of the residents due to congestion, health and sanitation. Social amenities and facilities could also be overstretched because of the number of people in the households.

Access to Utilities and Household Facilities

Information on household utilities and facilities give clear indication of how accessible certain basic facilities and necessities are to households and communities in general. This section analyses the main source of lighting, cooking space used by households, bathing and toilet facilities, main source of water for cooking and other domestic purposes, main source of energy for lighting and fuel for cooking as well as method of waste disposal.

Main source of lighting

Table 8.8 presents data on the sources of lighting for households. In view of the fact that the district is rural, less than one-half (46.3%) of the households use electricity (main) and this is comparatively lower than the regional average of 53.8 percent. This is followed by households using flashlight (40.4%) and kerosene lamps (11.8%). There is no household in the district using crop residue as a source of lighting but less than one percent (0.5%) uses solar energy and candles.

Main source of fuel for cooking

Table 8.9 shows the main source of cooking fuel used by households in the district. From the table, a total of 2,781 representing 75.5 percent of the 3,685 households in the district uses wood for cooking compared with the regional average of 60.0 percent. A total of 10.6 percent and 3.3 percent of the households respectively use charcoal and liquefied petroleum gas for cooking in the district. Thus, an overwhelming majority of the households in the Banda District depends on the vegetation for their supply of fuel for cooking. On the other hand, a relatively low percentage of the households use other sources like electricity and crop residue.

Cooking space used by households

Table 8.9 again shows the main source of cooking space used by households. From the table, the highest proportion of households (42.9%) cooks in open space in a compound while 12.0 percent use the veranda as cooking space. Almost one out of every five households (19.0%) uses separate rooms exclusively for cooking compared to 10.3 percent which uses structures with roof but no wall for cooking. In the district, a total of 10.3 percent of the households has no cooking space.