Introduction

 The policy framework of the Government of Ghana, the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda, emphasized the need for increased access of the population to safe, adequate and affordable housing and shelter (National Development Planning Commission, 2010). Earlier frameworks also underscored the important role of housing in social development. For example, in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (2003–2005) policy framework, housing interventions were prescribed implicitly within the context of social development objectives (National Development Planning Commission, 2002).

 The achievement of health objectives was linked, among others, to the provision of safe water supply and sewerage, improved housing, and well planned settlements. The provision of periodic information on housing and housing conditions is, therefore, important both to assess what has been achieved and to plan ahead.

 The 2010 PHC, just as the 2000 census, provided an official count of all structures (permanent and temporary) within the nation. Among the issues covered were the number of occupied and unoccupied dwelling units, the type of dwellings and the main materials used in construction of houses, occupancy status, methods of waste disposal, utilities and household facilities.

 It is envisaged that the housing data from the 2010 PHC will enable planners and policy makers formulate realistic and relevant housing policies and design appropriate programmes to meet Ghana’s housing needs. This chapter provides information on the types of housing, ownership, building materials for walls, floor and roof. It also covers main sources of water for drinking and other domestic uses, energy for lighting, cooking fuel and space as well as means for disposing both solid and liquid wastes in the District.

Housing stock

The overall household population in Sekyere Central District is 70,574 consisting of 22,302 in urban areas and 48,272 in rural areas. The District has a housing stock of 11,434 houses. It further reveals that there are 14,632 households in the District with an average household per house of 1.3. Also, population per house stood at about 6 people in the while the mean household size is 4.8 persons.

Type of dwelling, holding and tenancy arrangement
Type of dwelling units

 It is observed that the major types of dwelling used by households in the District are compound house (41.1%), separate house (33.5%) and huts/buildings (same compound) which consists of 15.4 percent. Together, they account for 90 percent of household’s ownership of dwellings. Relatively low proportions of households occupy improvised structures like tents, kiosk and containers as well as uncompleted buildings. There is variation between rural and urban areas in terms of dwelling type in the District. A higher proportion of households in urban (62.9%) than rural (30.1%) communities dwell in compound house (rooms).

On the other hand, a higher proportion of rural households (37.1%) reside in separate house than their urban counterparts (26.5%). The high proportion of households dwelling in separate houses in rural areas could be explained by the relatively low cost and ease of acquisition of plots for construction of houses in rural areas compared to urban areas. Other types of dwellings in the District accommodate relatively small proportion of households in both urban and rural areas.

 Female headed households living in compound house (rooms) are predominantly higher (53.0%) than their male counterparts (34.1%). However, a slightly higher percentage of male headed households (34.3%) occupy separate houses than females (32.3%). With respect to non-permanent structures such as tent, kiosk, office/shop, there is no significant variation between male and female headed households which dwell in them. They also account for a relatively low proportion of the population that uses these types of dwellings.

 House ownership

Analysis shows that 65.7 percent of dwelling units occupied by households in the District are owned by household members. About 13.8 percent of all dwellings are owned by private individuals; 14.1 percent are owned by a relative who is not a member of the household. About 0.9%)of the dwelling units is owned through mortgage schemes. It is further revealed, from the analysis that, the dwellings occupied by male-headed households are more likely to be owned by household members (67.0%) than those occupied by female headed households (63.5%). Also, ownership of dwellings by household members is higher in the rural areas (73.4%) than in the urban areas (50.5%). The proportion of dwellings owned by the public (government) is quite low (1.3%), with 1.5 percent and 1.1 percent respectively for urban and rural areas.

 Room occupancy 

The number of ‘sleeping rooms’ provides an indication of the extent of overcrowding in households. Overcrowded rooms have health implications arising from, among others, disturbed sleep. More importantly, crowded living conditions increase the risk of the spread of infectious diseases, such as meningococcal disease, tuberculosis and respiratory infections. Considering the hot and humid conditions, overcrowding can lead to psychological distress; lack of tolerance, reduced levels of concentration and can affect mental health. Single room occupancy by households in the District is 48.4 percent. About 14.7 percent of households also occupy four or more rooms. Majority of one member household (86.5%) in the District sleep in one room.

 The data also shows that, about two-thirds (66.7%) of household with two members sleep in one room whereas nearly a quarter (23.4%) has two sleeping rooms. The data further shows that 59.2 percent of households with three members sleep in one room, whilst about one-fourth (24.4%) of three member households sleep in two rooms and 9.6 percent sleep in three rooms. Moreover, a proportion of 51.9 percent of households with four members sleep in one room while 30 percent sleep in two rooms as well as 10.3 percent in three rooms. About 9.3 percent of households with 10 or more members occupy single rooms. The Table further indicates that about 34 percent of households with 6 members have either one or two sleeping rooms whereas 17.2 percent, 21.2 percent and 19.8 percent of households with ten or more members have two, three and four sleeping rooms respectively.

 Access to Utilities and Household facilities
 Main Source of lighting 

 Nature of the source of lighting is one of the indicators of quality of life. As society improves, the source of lighting shifts from use of low quality sources such as firewood to more efficient ones such as electricity. As indicated, the three major sources of non-natural lighting for households in Sekyere Central District are flash light (46.8%), electricity (34.4%) and kerosene lamp (16.2%).

The data shows that, the proportion of dwelling units using flash light as one of the major sources of lighting for their household is 46.8 percent with 17.9 percentage use in urban compared to 61.3 percentage use in the rural localities which could be attributed to the introduction of rechargeable flash varieties and long-lasting batteries in the market. Furthermore, the proportion of dwelling units using electricity (excluding private generators) is 34.4 percent consisting of 67.4 percent in urban and 17.8 percent in rural localities. Also, 13.2 percent of households in the District used kerosene lamps as a source of lighting compared to 17.8 percent in the rural areas. An insignificant number of households use solar energy, gas lamp, crop residue as their source of lighting.

 Main source of fuel for cooking

 The major sources of fuel for cooking include wood and charcoal, accounting for 91.3 percent. In terms of distribution by the type of locality of residence, the use of wood is far higher in rural areas (85.2%) than urban setting (51.8%). The reverse situation is observed in the use of charcoal where the urban localities account for 32.6 percent as compared to rural localities (9.6%). Similar trend is replicated in the use of gas as fuel for cooking with a higher proportion of 6.7 percent and 1.2 percent for urban and rural localities respectively. Other sources account for very low proportions for the households in the District.

 Cooking space

 In terms of cooking space, a sizable proportion of households use separate room exclusively (29.9%) as cooking space which forms the highest proportion in the District, followed by the use of open space in compound (20.5%). However, households using separate room shared with other household(s) and structure with roof but without walls as cooking space accounts for 30.9 percent. The least proportion of households use bedroom/hall as space for cooking (0.3%) and a proportion of 6.5 percent of the households in the District have no cooking space. In terms of locality, households using separate room exclusively as cooking space are predominant in both rural (29.4%) and urban areas (30.2%). The use of open space within compound and structure with roof but without walls are significantly higher among households in urban than rural areas. In addition, there is a higher proportion of households using verandah in urban areas (12.5%) than rural localities (7.6%).

 Information Communication Technology

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important tool in today’s knowledge-based information society and economy. ICT has contributed immensely to the development of human capital and hence increased productivity. The 2010 PHC, for the first time, collected data on access to and use of ICT. Information was collected on, among many others and ownership of mobile phones by persons 12 years and older and households respectively. The internet has become a very useful communication facility for people, businesses and organizations. Some of the common uses of the internet include electronic mailing, accessing information, conducting business transactions and social networking. Persons using internet facility refers to those who had access to internet facility at home, internet cafe, on mobile phone, game machine, digital television or other mobile devices. To understand some of these developments a module was included in the 2010 PHC on ownership and use of ICT facilities. This chapter analyses ownership of mobile phones, use of internet facilities and household ownership of desktop or laptop computers.

 Ownership Mobile Phone

Table 5.1 shows the population 12 years and older who own mobile phones and those who use internet facility by sex. Overall there are 46,693 persons 12 years and older in the District out of which 13,119 representing 28.1 percent own mobile phones. Out of the total male population 12 years and older in the District 31 percent own mobile phones compared to 25.4 percent for their females counterparts. This is an indication that there are more males who own mobile phones than females.

Use of Internet

Further shows the proportion using the internet for persons 12 years and older. From the population in the District only 752 persons, representing 1.6 percent use internet facility. In terms of sex composition, males constitute 2.4 percent of users of internet relative to female counterparts (0.9%).

 Household ownership of desktop or laptop computers

Household ownership of desktop or laptop computers. Out of a total of 14,632 households in the Sekyere Central District aged 12 years and older, only 1.7 percent of households own desktop or laptop computers.

There is a slight variation in the male-female differentials. From a total male population of 9,234 males, only 194 representing 2.1 percent have desktop/laptop computers with female headed households having only 62 representing 1.1 percent.