Housing Barkhan
Barkhan is the only town in the district. There were 8,217 houses in the district at the time of the 1981 census period.
Tenure
In Barkhan district 90% of the housing units are owner occupied, 6% of the housing units are rented and 4% are rent free houses.
Construction Material
Most of the houses are made of mud and unbaked bricks. For 82% of the houses unbaked bricks and mud had been used for the construction of outer walls, for 9% used baked bricks/stones and cement had been used in the construction of outer walls, and for 4% used baked bricks/stones and mud had been used for the construction of outer walls. For 80% of the houses girders/beams had been used for the construction of roofs. In urban areas RCC houses are built by well to do people.
Sources of energy
The main sources of energy are kerosene oil, electricity, wood and LPG. For lighting purposes electricity and kerosene oil is mostly used, for cooking purposes wood/bushes, LPG and dung cake.
In urban areas mostly electricity and LPG is used, whereas in rural area, where electricity is not available, kerosene oil, wood/bushes and dung cake is used.
Housing Characteristics
Almost 85% of the housing units consist of one to three rooms. The average number of persons is 10 per housing unit and 4 per room.
In urban areas almost 75% of the houses have a bathroom, kitchen and latrines, while in rural areas hardly 5% have these facilities.
Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Sources of drinking water are tube wells, karezes, wells, springs and hand-pumps. The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and the Local Government Department are responsible for potable water supply to the population. Sixteen water supply schemes have been commissioned by the PHED to supply water to 27,000 beneficiaries. The water and sanitation cell of Local Government has installed 70 hand-pumps; the population benefiting from these pumps comprises 10,500 people. Thus 25.41% of the total population is supplied with potable water by the government. The rest of the people get their water supply from karezes, tub- wells, springs, wells and ponds.
The coverage of sanitation in urban areas include the disposal of the solid waste and cleaning of houses and streets. In rural areas these facilities are not available.