Housing Environment for Slums and its Relationship with the Health and Social Problems in Alexandria Governorate

A. Soliman, Somaya; S. Abo Shosha, Said; H. Noweir, Kamal; A. Elshial, Ehsan

doi:10.21608/asejaiqjsae.2017.127360

Housing Environment for Slums and its Relationship with the Health and Social Problems in Alexandria Governorate

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

10.21608/asejaiqjsae.2017.127360

Abstract

A huge revival occurred in Egypt after World War II, This revival included different fields and activities, and accompanied by fundamental changes in lifestyle and needs for individuals and groups. The most notably change was the accumulation of population randomly in areas without prior urban planning or health control. As a result, small cities and neighborhoods appeared without any validity or facilities in their housing elements. The main objective of this research is to identify the residential environment of some slums in Alexandria Governorate and its relationship with the spreading of health and social diseases among the population in these areas. So, the sample of this research was 150 housing units which randomly selected from two areas in Alexandria. The two areas were New Hadara which represents the middle district of Alexandria, and Zawiya Abdul Qader which represent America district. The results have showed that the variance of degree of crowdedness for Abdul-Qader was greater than New Hadra, where the degree of crowdedness was 66.29%, and 39.98% respectively. 70% of the investigated residential housing units depend on the fans as a ventilation system. Also, 27.3 % of the investigated unites either do not exposed to the sun rays or exposed for a very short time during the day. As well as, 92% of these houses are exposed to pollutants from the surrounding environment, such as the burning of garbage and rubber, the exhaust of the factories, as well as the bad smells of sewage and waste water. It was also found that 70% of the investigated houses residents in both studied areas are suffering from rodents and insects which resulting from pets and birds breeding. It was noticed that the investigated residents at New Hadra are suffering from some health problems such as rapid stress, headache, chest allergy, hepatitis, and gastroenteritis (stomach flu). The nasal congestion was the most spreaded disease in the New Hadara with percentage reach to 57.3%, while it was 46.7% for Abdul Qader. On the other hand, sneezing and rapid stress were 52%, and 49.3% repectively for New Hadara, whilesneezing and rapid stress were 26.7% and 56% for Abdul Qader respectively.
Regarding to the social behavior of the respondents, the results showed that 87.3% of them are helping their neighbors, and 51.3% of them, their neighbors have no effect on their children behavior. It was noticed that 48% of them punished their children by beating. On the other hand, the statistical results at 0.01 confidence level, have shown that there is a proportional relationship between the health status of the respondents as a dependent variable and the educational level of the wife, monthly household income, area of housing, internal and external environment as independent variables. It was found that There is a correlation relationship at confidence level (0.01) between the social behavior of the respondents as a dependent variable and age of the husband, number of children, crowdedness measured by PPR (person per room) and the internal and external residential.

Main Subjects