Shacks account for about 25% of dwelling units: report
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) on Wednesday launched a report revealing that about 25% of the country’s dwelling units are impoverished housing units (shacks).
The census mapping report will provide some preliminary indicators that will contribute to the evaluation of the different plans that the country has put in place in preparation for the main census in 2023.
The mapping exercise, undertaken between October 2019 and February 2021, indicated that there were 507,249 dwelling units in Namibia, of which 36.6% are detached houses, while a significant proportion of about 25% are shacks with the highest percent situated in the Khomas region.
According to the report, 42.6% of households countrywide have no toilet facilities, and this is common in rural areas at 64.6% compared to urban areas at 22.6%.
In terms of water supply, the census which mapped 14,402 points where 88.8% were in rural areas compared to 11.2% in urban areas showed that about 17% of households rely on water from unprotected wells for cooking with the highest proportion recorded in Ohangwena and Zambezi regions.
“A significant number of households used piped water for cooking (i.e. Piped water outside (35.6%), piped water inside (31.5%), and public piped water (15.4%). Water from boreholes with open tanks covered (24.9%) was a common cooking water source in the Kunene region while water from the river/dam /stream was significant in Kavango West (15.4%) and Kavango East (11.5%) region,” the report stated.
About 53% of households in Namibia use firewood as the main source of energy for cooking, and only 31% of the households use electricity from mains, the report showed.
The census mapping mapped 965,265 structures throughout the country, representing households and all other structures. A total of 529,734 structures were situated in urban areas while 435,474 were located in rural areas, the report further noted.. (Xinhua)
