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B1 Washing people | B2 Washing clothes and bedding | B3 Removing waste water safely | B4 Improving nutrition – the ability to store, prepare and cook food | B5 Reducing the impacts of over-crowding | B6 Reducing the negative effects of animals, insects and vermin | B7 Reducing the health impacts of dust | B8 Controlling the temperature of the living environment | B9 Reducing hazards that cause minor injury (trauma)

B5 Reducing the impacts of over-crowding

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Crowded living conditions increase the risk of the spread of infectious diseases, such as meningococcal disease, rheumatic fever, tuberculosis and respiratory infections. In a crowded house it can also be more difficult to access health hardware, such as hot water, showers and clothes washing facilities. To reduce these risks, consider how to minimise the effects of crowding when planning the living environment.

At the beginning of a housing project, it is essential to estimate the number of people likely to be using houses, especially at peak times. As the following example shows, estimated population per house cannot be calculated by simply dividing a community’s population by the number of houses in the community.
 
In a community with 300 people and 50 houses, it could be assumed that an average of six people live in each house. Consultation with the community may reveal that only 25 of the 50 houses have health hardware working, and residents of the non-working houses have to use the houses in which health hardware is working, which means the average house population would be 12 people.

If a sports carnival is held in the community or during the annual wet season, the population could double or treble and the demand on working houses to could increase to 24 – 36 people per house.

Beware estimating house population by dividing population by house numbers because this could mean that houses will not be designed to have sufficient space and health hardware, and the residents will experience increased health risks.

It is also possible that specific parts of a house can become crowded at particular times. For example, in extreme climatic conditions, all members of the household are likely to congregate in the one room of the house that is able to be cooled or heated and this can lead to the increased spread of infection, even in small households.

Even if all houses in a community are fully functional, some families will choose to live in large, multi-generational households, despite other houses being available in the community. These families will not necessarily consider their house to be crowded, but could suffer health effects if the health hardware is not adequate for the number of people living in the house. A large household population can also cause health hardware to fail prematurely simply because it is constantly in use. Large populations may also result in high power bills for the main residents unless energy efficiency has been considered in house design and specification.

More houses can reduce the negative impacts of over-crowding, however the example above shows that it is also necessary to design for peak populations. This can be achieved by providing more health hardware in houses, developing the yard and edges of houses to provide more household service, cooling and heating several rooms in the house, providing additional sleeping areas, and ensuring the health hardware in most houses in a community is functioning most of the time through regular maintenance.