Low-income Urban Settlements in Ghana: The State of Housing Facilities in Two Indigenous Settlements in Kumasi

Abstract

Declining physical housing quality and lack of access to basic amenities remain the characteristics of much of the current housing stock in African countries, including Ghana. These are mostly found in the traditional old towns where the practice of providing public facilities was common in the past, but has currently outlived its relevance basically due to urbanization. The goal of this study is to examine housing conditions and access to housing facilities in old towns in Ghana. The case study method was used for the study with the Kentinkrono and Ayeduase settlements which are suburbs of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, as the focus area of the study. The study revealed that, pipe-borne water and borehole were the most dominant sources of water supply in the two communities and most of the residents did not have water in their houses. Most households had bathrooms in their homes but some had converted their bathrooms into bedrooms for rental purposes. Almost half of the households lacked toilet facilities in their houses and so made use of the public toilets which were not in good hygienic condition. The study therefore recommended that, there is the need to train and equip building inspectors to undertake regular inspection of houses using modern technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
This would ensure that physical developments are kept under control. The housing challenge is therefore not only quantitative with exclusive focus on housing deficits but also in ensuring that, the traditional old towns in cities are provided with basic housing facilities which is also vital for preventing slum formation and informal housing processes.