Housing

Dr. Sharad Koirala

Community Medicine, GMC
 Housing
• Unit of settlements
• Provides Residential Environment
• All places where a group of people live and
pursue their life goals
• Consists of:
– The physical structure providing shelter
– Immediate surrounding
– Related community facilities
 Goals of housing
• Provide shelter: sanitary shelter
• Facilitate family life
• Encourage access to community facilities
• Promote family participation in community
activities
• Promote healthy life
 Healthful housing
• Provide shelter, rest and physical protection
• Provides adequately for routine daily activities like cooking,
washing, bathing etc
• Prevents the spread of communicable diseases
• Provides protection from hazards of exposure to pollution
• Has safe physical arrangements from construction and
maintainence
• Safe from toxic and harmful materials
• Promotes mental health: encourages personal and
community development, promotes social relationships
 Government responsibilities
• Introduce social housing schemes
• Set minimum and maximum standards
• Establish financial institutions that help the
public to establish and improve housing
 Types of houses
• Kutcha house
• Pucca house
• Kutcha-pucca house
 Kutcha house
• Stone or brick walls joined with mud
• Floor made of mud
• Thatched roof
 Pucca house
• Walls with cemented joints
• Cemented floor
• Rcc roof
 Kutcha-pucca house
• Any house inbetween the criteria of kutcha
and pucca houses
 Housing standards
• Depends on social and economic characters
like family size and composition, income, living
standards, life style, education, cultural factors
• Different from region to region due to changes
in climate and culture
• Minimum standards have been set to maintain
an improvement in housing and
environmental conditions
 Housing standards
• Site/ location:
– Elevated
– Access to road
– Proper surrounding environment
– compact soil
– Subsoil water level below 3m
• Setback:
– Rural area: built up area not more than 1/3
– Urban area: built up area not more than 2/3
 Housing standards
• Floor:
– Pucca
– Impermeable
– Smooth and free from cracks and crevices
– Damp-proof
– The plinth should be 0.6 to 1 m high
• Walls:
– Relatively strong
– Low heat capacity
– Weather resistant
– Unsuitable for harbourage of insects and rhodents
– Preferably 9 inch brick walls, smoothly plastered and coloured
cream or white
 Housing standards
• Roof:
– At least 3 m (10 ft) high
– Low heat transmittance
• Room:
– at least 2: one of which can be locked for security
– Number and area should be increased according to the family
size
• Floor area:
– Each room should have atleast 12 sq m (120 sq ft), if occupied
by more than a person
– Each room should have at least 10 sq m (100 sq ft) if occupied
by a person
– The total floor area per person should not be less than 50 sq ft
 Housing standards
• Cubic area:
– At least 500 cu ft per person; height above 10 feet is not
considered
• Windows
– At least 2 windows in each room
– At least one of them directed to an open space
– Should not be placed more than 3 feet (1 m) above the floor
– Total area at least 1/5 of the floor area
– Doors and windows should cover at least 2/5 of floor area
– Can be changed in facility of mechanical ventilation
• Light: daylight factor should be more than 1% in half the
floor area
 Housing standards
• Kitchen:
– At least 1 separate kitchen
– Adequately lighted
– Protected against dust and smoke
– Arrangements to store food and other provisions
– Water supply and a sink for washing
– Impervious floor
• A sanitary latrine
• Facility of disposal of waste
• Safe and adequate water supply
• Bathing and washing area
 Rural housing
• Standards a little different than in urban areas
• At least 2 living rooms
• A separate verandah
• Built up area not more than 1/3 of total area
• Window area atleast 10% of floor area
• A separate kitchen with paved sink or platform for washing utensils
• A sanitary latrine
• A sanitary water source within 500 m distance
• Cattles and livestocks must be kept in a shed atleast 25 ft away
from the house
• Arrangements for disposal of waste water, refuse and garbage
 Poor/ Substandard Housing
Can cause different health hazards
• Water/ food borne infections
• Respiratory infections: common cold, tuberculosis,
diphtheria, whooping cough, measles etc
• Skin infections: scabies, ringworm
• Rat infestation: plague
• Arthropods: house fly, mosquito, fleas, bugs
• Accidents, injuries, fires
• Psychosocial effects:
– Isolation, depression in urban areas
– Anxiety, irritability due to overcrowding
 Overcrowding
• Condition in which more people are living in a
house than it has space for
• Count of persons:
– A baby under 12 months is not counted
– Children between 1-10 years are taken as half unit
– Persons above 10 years are taken as 1 unit
 Accepted standards
• Persons per room
• Floor space
• Sex separation
 Persons per room
• 1 room: 2 persons
• 2 rooms: 3 persons
• 3 rooms: 5 persons
• 4 rooms: 7 persons
• 5 rooms: 10 persons
• Additional 2 persons for each further room
 Floor space per person
• 110 sq ft (11 sq m) or more- 2 persons
• 90-110 sq ft (9-11 sq m): 1 and half persons
• 70-90 sq ft: 1 person
• 50-70 sq ft: half person
• <50 sq ft (5 sq m): nil
 Sex separation
• 2 persons of opposite sex above 9 years of age
and not husband and wife should not be
obliged to sleep in same room
 Consequences of overcrowding
• Movement is restricted
• Maintaining privacy becomes difficult
• Maintainence of hygiene becomes difficult
• Rest and sleep becomes difficult
• Rapid spread of infectious diseases esp.
respiratory diseases like Tb, influenza etc
• Psychological problems may be seen: irritability,
stress, anxiety, violence; esp among children
Settlements
 Settlement
• A collection of houses in an area sharing the
same community facilities (may contain only
one household in rare situations)
• May be composed of a single family to
millions of people
 Rural settlement
• A small, sparsly populated community that exists
in the country
• Away from densly populated urban area
• Less heterogeneous population
• Agriculture is the major occupation
• Houses, schools, shops, religious areas are
clustered together
• A lot of farmland
• A nearby forest
 Types of rural settlements
• Clustured settlements:
– Circular
– Linear
• Dispersed settlement
 Features of modern rural settlement
• Access to road
• Public water supply
• Electricity supply
• Telecommunication, internet
• Clubs, co-operative groups, political parties
working for the welfare of people
• Health centre: must be within 30 min. walk
 Urban settlement
• Shift in the principle employment from
agriculture to non-agriculture
• Specialization, industrialization and economic
development
• High level of economic interaction
• High density and diversity of population
 Settlements (Local government
operation act 2074)
• Rural municipality
• Municipality
• Submetropolitan city
• Metropolitan city
 Criteria for urban settlements
• Principally based on population of permanent
residents
 Municipality
• Mountainous district: atleast 10000
• Hilly district: atleast 40000
• Inner madesh district: atleast 50000
• Terai district: atleast 75000
• Kathmandu valley: atleast 100000
 Other criteria
• Generated internal revenue, urban facilities
and infrastructures
• Bank and financial institution
• Market centre
• Slaughter house
• Master-plan and urban infrastructure facility
 Submetropolitan city
• Population: Atleast 250000
• Yearly internal revenue: atleast NRs 250
million (25 crore)
• Higher level technical and vocational
education facility
• Modern slaughter house
• Motel, hotel and resort for tourist
 Metropolitan city
• Population: atleast 500000
• Yearly internal revenue: atleast: NRS 1 billion
(1 arab)
• Well managed agriculture market centre
• International standard trade fair centre
• Technical and vocational education institution
• International standard hotel
 Consequences of urbanization
• Positive
• Negative
 Positive consequences
• Economic development: industrialization,
development of business and employment
• Social and political changes
• educational oppurtunities
• communication facilities
• Availability of modern facilities of health, sports,
entertainment
• Provision of proper sanitation and waste disposal
 Negative consequences
• Unequal wealth distribution
• Health hazards
• Violence
• Social disintegration
• Environmental pollution
• Increased cost of living
• Slums and squatters
 Slum
• heavily populated urban informal settlement usually in
the outskirts of city
• The boundary is usually located by the government
• Substandard housing
• Lack of clean water, sanitation, reliable electricity and
other basic services
• Problem of poor law enforcement
• Overcrowding
• develops mainly due to rural urban migration,
unemployment, natural disasters
 Squatter
• Smaller illegal settlement within urban areas
lacking basic facilities of water, sanitation,
electricity
• Has a risk of being vacated at any time
 Problems in slums and squatters
• Natural and manmade disasters
• Unemployment
• Disease outbreaks and epidemics
• Poor maternal and child health facilities
• Violence
• Commercial sex work
Thank you.