17. Housing

A. Different Housing Needs:

1. Physical Needs:

• Should be built on elevated & dry place.
• Damp-proof material should be used, especially in basement & Plinth. (E.g. use of Black Damar etc).
• Rooms should be available according size of family or occupants. It is better one room may be provided to each adult member separately, if financial condition permits.
• Every room should have proper cross ventilation.
• Toilets should be separate from room, means rooms should• be attached with toilets. & Toilets also should be constructed according size of family or occupants.
• It favorable that one toilet per 04 members of house may be established. Each toilet must have a ventilation pipe, opened to upward, favorably.
• Walls of toilet should be up not lesser than 6 feet & floor should be made with smooth & shiny tiles for proper of cleaning, if financial condition permits.
• Daily disinfection of toilets must be done.
• Kitchen should .have a tiled floor for easy & good cleansing & should have good ventilation through exhaust fan or chimney.
• 20–25 feet Kitchen should be away from main residence area for protection of smoke & heat radiation inside the house.
• As per Municipal Law of Pakistan, the floor or cover plot of house should not be less than 90 square feet per adult & 60 feet per child. (E.g. for 5 members floor is need: 5x 90 = 450 Sq feet).
• Windows size should be than 115 part of area covered in that room.
• Doors & windows should not be lesser than 114 part of area of room. (Example: If size of room is 20 sq. feet than size of windows & doors must not be lesser 5 sq. feet in total).
• House should have a separate conference hall or room.
• Doors should have a height of 6.5 feet for prevention of accident. (Prevention of hitting head)
• Doors should open outward not inward to prevent animals to enter in house.
• Domestic animals should be avoided to keep inside house premises.
• The servant’s quarter should be at distance of 20 feet at least away from main house.
• House should be rodent proof by its structure.
• The chain system housing must be prevented, because this chain system housing produces un-hygienic environment & poor ventilation, which harms the health.

2. Psychological Needs:

These include:

• House should provide environment of Love & affection, which make people happy & glad & prevent hopelessness.
• House should promote Privacy, because it implements the social norms & promotes self-esteem.
• House should provide artistic Satisfaction by good construction design.
• House should prevent noise pollution, because; noise can cause brain tumor, irritability, anger & sleeplessness.
• House should have separate section for recreational activities for playing different indoor games to reduce mental stresses.
• House should provide family encouragement for problems.
• House member should provide Counseling in Psycho-Social problems.
• House should provide especial portion for Religious meeting & Ritual practices.

3. Health Needs:

• House should have good system of disposal of waste. E.g. Disposal of Garbage, disposal of Sewage system etc.
• For primary disposal dustbins should be used in house for collection of dry waste. These dustbins should be emptied in secondary disposal tank, placed by Municipality and then it will be removed to tertiary disposal. (Dumping, decomposing, burning or recycling).
• House should have good ventilation.
• House should be clean.
• House should be noise free by keeping normal ratio of rooms & family members.
• House should be supplied Adequate & safe water.
• House should have access of sun-light, inside the all parts of house for disinfections.

4. Protective Needs:

• House should be good electrified & lighted for protection of electrocution.
• Stairs should be non-slippery, well-lighted, and in position of 1500 angle for protection of fall-injury.
• Floor should not be slippery for prevention of fall injuries.
• House should provide the safety and security; this will decrease anxiety & stress; created by illegal human acts. (Stealing, threatening, extortion etc)
• House must be earthquake proof.

Standards of Housing

1. Site:

• It should be dry, warm, slightly up & open to air and sunlight.

2. Open Space:

• Should not be less than 10 feet around the house for easy passing of air and sunlight.

3. Walls:

• Should be built on concrete bed.
• Should be thick from 1 -1.5 feet; that heat cannot radiate through.

4. Roof:

• Should have a good arrangement of or flow of rainy water.
• Must be water leakage proof.
• Should be built on height of 10-13 feet.

5. Floor:

• Should be dust free.
• Should be made with concrete and cement or spread over baked brick if afford the finance otherwise it must be plastered with mud.

6. Rooms, doors & windows:

• Already explained in physical needs of housing in this unit, please see it.

7. Facilities:

• Install Exhaust fan if possible.
• Furniture should not be kept more than capacity & not create congestion.
• House should have a facility of near transport and market for buying fresh fruits and vegetables.

Effects of poor housing on health:

Respiratory Infections:

• Pneumonia
• Bronchial Asthma
• Bronchitis
• Tonsillitis
• Influenza
• Tuberculosis

Causes:

• Poor ventilation in house
• No open space provided around the house
• Close contact
• Common use of utensils
• Damp environment inside house
• Smoke of kitchen inside house
• Congested living in house
• Small room house
• Poor entrance of sunlight inside the house

Skin Infections:

• Scabies
• Staphylococcal Infections
• Fungal Infections
• Rashes
• Septic Boils
• Leprosy
• Dermatitis

Causes:

• Poor ventilation
• Frequent physical contact
• Congestion in sharing of accommodation
• Common linen usage
• Common furniture usage

Accidents:

• Factures due fall
• Sprain
• Strain
• Dislocations
• Electrocution

Causes:

• Smooth Floor
• Low Light
• Faults in electric wiring
• Low level of doors can hit the head

Mortality and Morbidity:

Due to increase in prevalence of above health problems mortality and morbidity rate will be increased automatically. Means these problems are directly proportional with mortality and morbidity.