According to the 1980 housing census, the district was reported having 46,315 houses. On the average a house was occupied by 8.2 persons and crowding per room was 7. Most (94%) of the houses consisted of only one room while the remaining (6%) had more than one room. A boundary wall was around almost all the houses.

In 1980, ninety-eight percent of the houses were occupied by the owners; only some houses were rented out. Some houses were given to others rent-free. Houses are rented out in urban areas only. In rural areas there is no tradition of renting out one’s house. Nonetheless the practice of renting out houses has increased, mainly, due to the establishment of various government offices in the district, which do not have their own buildings. Similarly most of the immigrant labour also lives in rented places.

There has been a tremendous change in construction material being used for buildings. In the past mud and un-baked bricks were used for the construction of houses and specially for courtyard walls. Roofs were made of trunks and leaves of date trees. In 1980, about three quarter (71%) of the houses had roofs made using girders/beams and kiln bricks. RCC or RBC construction was very rare. According to the 1980 housing census, about 87 percent of the houses were constructed after the creation of Pakistan. Thirty-one percent of the houses were constructed in the period of 1975-80. In some areas, pish mats are used with date tree branches for construction of abodes.

Presently, many buildings are being constructed with concrete blocks made of cement, gravel crush, and sand. The roofs in such buildings are constructed using RCC or iron girders and concrete blocks or kiln bricks or tiles, while the walls are constructed with concrete blocks.

Kerosene oil lamps are used in most of the houses as source of light. Turbat town area has regular electric supply, while in Buleda electricity is provided daily for 7 hours only. In these areas electric appliances are used for light, and rarely for cooking. Kerosene lamps are used for light in all the other villages. In Kech, a total of 8,627 electric supply connections were given up to February 1997, out of which 6,723 were domestic connections. Keeping in view the number of houses (46,315 in 1980) in the district, electricity supply coverage seems quite insufficient. Very few people have electric generators for their own use.

Cooking is mainly done by using fuel wood. Kerosene oil stoves are also used for cooking to some extent as petroleum products are relatively cheaper in Kech due to cross-border trade. Liquid petroleum gas is also available in cylinders which is mainly used for cooking. At present more than 6,000 cylinders, each containing 11 kg of LPG, are being consumed per month in the whole district. Fuel wood is collected by both, men and women. Some people have the business of collecting fuel wood from woodlands and basins of rivers and selling it in towns.

According to 1980 housing census, 94 percent of the houses had only one room for multipurpose use. Detailed information on housing characteristics are available for the urban areas only. In urban areas, a separate kitchen was available in 28 percent of the houses, separate bathrooms in 38 percent of the houses, and latrines in 26 percent of the houses. Separate latrines with flush were very few (2%). Houses without bathrooms constituted 44 percent while 53 percent of the houses were without any latrine facility.

In 1980, none of the households had access to piped drinking water. About half of the households were using drinking water obtained from open surface wells, while 47 percent of the households were obtaining drinking water from springs, karezes, and rivers or streams.

The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has completed 88 water supply schemes till February 1997, out of which 65 are functional providing drinking water to 23.2 percent of the population. In some water supply schemes, drinking water is supplied to the houses through pipelines, while in others community tanks have been constructed at relatively central places from where people fetch water. In case the source of drinking water is not located inside the house, usually it is the duty of the women or children to fetch water for household needs.

The Water and Sanitation Section of the Local Government and Rural Development Department (LG&RDD) has recently completed a project in collaboration with UNICEF which covered the installation of 120 deep well hand pumps (on open surface wells) for drinking water and construction of 220 latrines at public places throughout the district. However some of these latrines were constructed in government offices which may not be seen as public places. Most of the houses in Turbat town have dry latrines while few houses have latrines with flush system. There is no sewerage system, therefore drainage water is often collected in the streets. Turbat municipal committee has one tractor trolley for collection and disposal of household garbage but this arrangement is limited to the municipal area of Turbat only and is inadequate.

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