Infrastructure - physical and social

This chapter looks at the kind of infrastructure to which different kinds of household have access. The critical question of water supply is addressed, an issue that is nearly as important as income and tenure in determining the quality of shelter available to low-income households. Access to sewage- and garbage-disposal systems are discussed as are the various forms of fuel used for cooking. Lastly, the social infrastructure within the settlements where people live is analysed from the perspective of the heads of household and their perceptions concerning support from outside the family unit itself.

 

Water

Most respondents in the low-income household survey had some access to water on a regular basis. However, the quality of this access varied considerably. The kind of water source and the numbers of people who shared it made a considerable difference to the hardship which different households experienced in getting water. As can be seen from table 18, there were only marginal differences between households in the kind of water source they used. Just over half of the respondents had water piped into the dwelling they occupied, with a further one third having it piped into their yards. Only 10 per cent were dependent on some other source, most often a public stand-pipe.

Table 18. Percentage of different types Or household by principal water source

Type of household	Principal source of water
	Piped to dwelling	Piped to yard only	Public	Neighbor	Other
Female - headed	52	38	5	3	3
Male-headed	61	28	3	6	2
Joint-headed	55	35	5	2	2
Overall	55	35	5	3	2

a / River. stream nearby institution. private tank.

To a large degree the kind of access that respondents had to water was determined by the area where they lived. In nine of the 42 areas surveyed over half the respondents had water piped into their yard only and there were three areas in particular where more than a third of the respondents were dependent on a public standpipe supply.

Levels of sharing of water supply were also high with nearly one third of the respondents indicating that they shared their water source with 25 or more people. The levels of sharing increased dramatically from the inner city which was relatively well supplied to the peripheral areas of the city where water supply was often a major problem for residents.

Some differences between different types of household emerged when it came to the kinds of payment people made for water. However, these were not particularly significant and can largely be accounted for by the higher likelihood of female-headed households being renters. Under most rental agreements the owner of the property is expected to pay the water bill. When the owner has a number of tenants on the same property he or she often arranges for shared payment of the bill. Over one quarter of the households were not paying any water rates at all and less than a third were making payments on an individual basis.

Respondents were asked about where they bathed. Again no significant levels of difference were found between different types of households as can be seen from table 19.

Table 19. Percentage of different types of households by kind of bathing faculty

Type of facility	Type of household
	Female- headed	Male- headed	Joint- headed	Total
Inside private	49	50	52	50
Inside shared	8	8	9	8
Outside private	15	12	13	14
Standpipe in yard	2	2	2	2
Standpipe nearby	I	1	0	0
River of gully	0	1	0	0
Pail or plastic bath	2	2	2	2
Other	2	2	1	2
None	0	1	1	1

Auntie

People in Auntie's household travel two and a half miles to obtain fresh water which has to be carried back on a minibus. This process costs at least $30 a week. They get the water from the public standpipe at Greenwich Farm. Initially they could get water from a dredging operation which is much closer to them. However. two years ago the man who controls that pipe stopped people using it because his wife had been abused by people from the area.

Deula

Women who live in Highlight View where Deula lives carry water for up to a mile when they wish to bathe so that they can do it in the privacy of their own yards. Men in the community however shower directly under the "fallin" which is a strong flow of water that falls out of a pipe protruding from the hillside. The "fallin" drops down into the valley below and serves as a water source for many hundreds of people.

Icie

Lena

Marcia

Megan

Water is obtained from a standpipe about half a mile away. Over 200 people use the same standpipe she uses. Sometimes the pressure is low and the waiting is too long so she has to walk for miles to get water.

Pansy

One of Pansy's main problems is the water. Although the sites-and-service scheme included a planned water supply the National Water Commission has never actually connected the supply because the residents have never received titles to their land from the Government. The ability to produce a land title is considered a prerequisite for connection.

Pansy gets water from a business place nearby her house. She uses a hose to fill drums and pays $30 monthly to the business. This water is used for all domestic purposes including flushing of the WC which is located inside the house. Other people in the area carry water from a nearby standpipe.

Verona

Water comes "under the fence" through a hose connected to a neighbour's supply but the water connection at the neighbour's is illegal and no water rates are paid. She showers in an open bathing area at the back of the yard.

Toilets

Female-headed households were more likely than other households to be sharing toilet facilities as can be seen from table 20.

Table 20. Percentage Or different types Or household by toilet arrangements

Type of toilet arrangement	Type of household
	Female- headed	Male- headed	Joint- headed
Shared	46	33	41
Private	54	67	59

Auntie

Defaecation is done in pails with the faeces being dumped in the sea. It is impossible to build a pit latrine because the household lives right at sea level.

She doesn't like the lack of toilet and water facilities or the rats. They swim over in the nights and eat the chickens. The lack of light is also a problem as is the presence of sand and dust which gets particularly bad when there is a stiff breeze.

Deula

Lena

Letty

She has an inside flush toilet.

Marcia

Megan

She feels ashamed that she does not have a bathroom or a toilet of her own and that she has to use her neighbour's.

Pam

Pam has problems with the woman she shares her house with and most of these problems centre on the toilet.

Verona

The household uses a pit latrine.

 

Electricity

Female-headed households were the least likely to have a metered electricity supply with less than half of the female heads interviewed having this facility (see table 21). Electricity obviously contributes in many ways to a household. Refrigeration and safe lighting are just two examples. One of the greatest dangers faced by low-income households with children is the use of kerosene lamps and candles in board rooms where children sleep and play. Nearly every week the local papers report deaths of children when wooden houses are burnt down as a result of accidents with kerosene lamps or open fires.

Auntie

They have no electricity in the area and the fish is preserved in an old freezer which they pack with block ice that they buy off the ice truck each morning.

Kerosene lamps are the only source of light at night.

Table 21. Percentage of different types of household by main source of light

Type of household	Source of light
	Electricity	Kerosene	Gas lamp	Candle
Female-headed	49	35	14	2
Male-headed	56	28	11	5
Joint-headed	57	35	7	1
Overall	54	33	11	2

Deula

Lena

Letty

Megan

Pam

Pam shares her light bill with a woman who shares the same house. They often argue.

Verona

Fuel

Female-headed households proved a little more likely to use charcoal and kerosene, the cheaper fuels. They were less likely to use the more convenient but also more expensive propane gas which is sold in cylinders. Many of the households have outside kitchens. This is a traditional practice and makes sense if you live in a wooden house and if you are using wood or charcoal to cook with (see table 22 ). Given that one of the major hazards of living in a wooden house is the likelihood of fire, the more expensive fuels are preferable if they can be afforded because they tend to be more controllable.

Table 22, Percentage of different types of household by type of fuel used

Type of household	Type of fuel
	Wood	Charcoal	Kerosene	Gas	Electricity
Female-headed	34	34	23	41	0
Male-headed	4	21	24	50	0
Joint-headed	3	20	25	45	0

Icie

Letty

She uses a mixture of gas and kerosene to cook and uses an outside kitchen.

Marcia

Megan

They mainly use charcoal as a cooking fuel but sometimes use gas when they can afford it.

Pansy

Pansy uses wood and coal for cooking because she considers gas in cylinders too expensive.

Verona

All the household's cooking is done on a charcoal fire. Charcoal costs $15 a bag and lasts about three nights.

 

Garbage

Garbage disposal was not a problem for most of the respondents. The women who found it a problem were the women who were located in peripheral areas of the city.

Auntie

Garbage is dumped in the sea because the trucks from the Metropolitan Service that come from Portmore will not stop. The garbage is a problem but the worst thing is when the Sandy Gully floods and garbage from the city is washed into the sea. A lot of this garbage eventually ends up on the beach right in among the houses.

Letty

Garbage is dumped in the gully as the garbage collection people don't reach this far.

Deula

The garbage trucks never come to the area. She uses some of the garbage for compost and has built herself a compost area with a bamboo enclosure. She dumps the rest of the garbage in the gully.

 

Social infrastructure

In the low-income household survey. 75 per cent of the respondents indicated that they had no individual or institution to whom they would be able to turn for help if they found themselves in trouble. Those who were able to give a name, usually gave the name of their Member of Parliament or a private individual respected in the local community. One of the saddest findings of the survey was that less than 7 per cent of the respondents interviewed believed that they had ever had any assistance from government with respect to land, water or housing. To a large degree this lack of expectation of help from government was borne out by the in-depth interviews with female heads of household. The vast majority of them believed that they would have to solve their own problems because no-one else was interested in helping them.

The stories that the women told, however, referred again and again to support or "backative" that they had received from their female friends and relatives. In some cases, particularly Pearl's and Deula's, this support had come from male relatives.

Some of the women also placed a considerable value on being known and liked in their community. They were particularly concerned about feeling safe. Violence is a common feature of low-income areas in much of Kingston and, for many women, the avoidance of violence has become a way of life. Security, in this sense is therefore of great importance to them and plays a major part in determining their attitude to the community around them.

Marcia

Icie

Megan

Her mother is her main backative. She brings food from the country.

Megan feels the area is safer than areas she has lived in before because it has its own security system provided by the ranking.

Marcia

Pansy

She likes the community because she feels safe there.

 

Recommendations

1. Adequate water supply is a critical factor in women's lives. The current policy of installing water supplies on a total-cost-recovery basis can lead to severe deterioration in the water-supply system, a deterioration which has a particularly negative impact on women and children. The costs of not providing water through a public standpipe system and of not allowing private water connections without owner-occupier status being provable may well be higher in the long term than the cost that these connections would entail to the national economy. Indirect costs of lack of water are particularly important with respect to increases in health problems.

Further work should be carried out on women's real access to water and the effects that it has on their and their children's lives. Implications for national water policy should be clearly delineated and steps taken to act on them.

2. Information on safe pit latrine construction techniques should be made available to women as well as men who live in areas where no mains sewer system exists. This information should preferably approach the whole question of sewage disposal from the perspective of a woman. such as Deula, who has responsibility for designing her own system and should be well illustrated with women evident in the illustrations as active participants in the building process.

3. Many low-income settlements lack the social cohesion normally associated with the term community. Shelter interventions often ignore this fact. The most successful interventions have often been those that have incorporated, from the beginning of the project. a community development component. Unfortunately budgetary cuts within the public sector often entail the cutting of the rare community-service divisions of housing development agencies. Community-service divisions should. on the contrary, be strengthened so that their capacity for outreach is improved. In addition community-service workers should be trained in appropriate community development methods.

4. Non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations often operate very successfully at the community level because of their ability to relate to low-income people directly. Their activities should be supported and their capacity to act in shelter-related areas should be strengthened. A special emphasis should be placed on support for those organizations that have a clear policy of support for women's activities and concerns.