This work is carried out as part of the realization of my doctoral thesis whose theme is Problematic of food and nutritional practices of urban populations in precarious neighborhoods. Population growth combined with the industrialization of cities has given rise to the phenomenon of precarious neighborhoods [1-3]. Faced with the birth of this phenomenon, several works have focused on precarious neighborhoods. Worldwide [4-5], in Africa [3,6-8] and Côte d'Ivoire [9-14], some authors have spoken about habitat characteristics. Others addressed the sanitation of precarious neighborhoods and gave the characteristics of the populations of these neighborhoods. Thus, the phenomenon of precarious neighborhoods is acute and constitutes an equation for leaders in terms of planning and development of States, especially in Côte d'Ivoire. Indeed, preliminary data from the latest general population and housing census indicate that the Ivorian population has increased from 24 million inhabitants (2014) to 28 million inhabitants (2021). Abidjan, the economic capital of the country gathers more than a fifth of this population with a density thirty times higher than the national average. The question then arises as to what are the living conditions of households in Abidjan, particularly those of precarious neighborhoods? What are their livelihoods? Our work, in addition to the research already carried out in certain precarious neighborhoods of Abidjan, is a complementary and updated response to the problem posed above. 

To carry out our study, we used three methods for our work [15]. The first method consisted of making a direct observation of the living environment of households using an observation grid and a camera. The second method is the Survey, which involved 376 households. The tool used is the questionnaire. As for the last method, it is the maintenance carried out with the Head of the Sanitation Service and the Head of the Neighborhood Management Committee of the municipality of Port-Bouët. The interview guide served as a tool for us. We will study successively:

• The characteristics of habitats

• Sanitation, drinking water and electricity supply to households

• The demographic characteristics of precarious neighborhoods

• The socio-economic and cultural characteristics of households residing there

Characteristics of the habitats of the precarious districts of Port-Bouët

From our observations, it appears in the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Boüet, several types of housing (housing) (Figure 1). These are the habitats of types:

• "Hard house" (85.1%)

• "Barracks" (or wooden house) (12%)

• "Other types of house" (9.6%). These are the houses of very poor quality

• "Dry stone house" (1.6%)

The materials used for the construction of these houses are diverse. Most of the houses are made of "brick" (73.1%). However, there are houses made of "wood" (12.2%), "brick and wood" (12.8%) and (0.5%), "wood, brick and bag" (1.3%) and rarely houses made of "wood, brick and sheet metal". 

These materials are mostly of "relatively good" quality at 69.9%, "bad" at 15.7% or "very good" at 14.4%. The roofs of the houses in the precarious districts of Port-Bouët are almost all composed of sheet metal, or 94.9%. A small part of the houses are covered with "straws" (1.1%), tarpaulins (1.1%), wood (2.1%) and black sheet metal (0.8%). The quality of the roofs is variable. There are some "relatively good" (66.5%), "bad" (17%) "relatively very good" (16.5%). In these precarious neighborhoods, there are many houses whose doors are made of wood and plywood, respectively at 58.2% and 25.8%. In addition, there are doors of houses made of iron (10.1%), black tarpaulin (5.1%) and black tarpaulin associated with plywood (0.8%). As for the windows, they are mostly made of wood at 88.3% of "relatively good" quality (72.3%), "bad" (16.8%) and "relatively very good" (10.9%). In some precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët, especially those in the Gonzaqueville area, the main access roads are relatively well traced, but not paved, with blocked gutters (drainage channels). The houses are more or less aligned, giving rise to "pretense" of streets, of varying dimensions. In the other precarious neighbourhoods of the "Pointe au fumeur" and "Le Phare" areas, access roads are reduced, unpaved and do not have gutters. The housing (housing) of the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët are essentially two-room houses (48.4%), one-room houses (37.5%), three rooms (10.4%) and rarely four rooms or more (3.7%). They are presented either in common courtyards (84%) or in detached houses (17.8%).   There are a few two-storey houses in the area of "Adjouffou". The size of these houses is "relatively average" at 63.3% and "relatively small" at 26.9%. Among households, 64.1% have kitchens located outside homes and 35.9% have a special room for the kitchen. Some households (35.9%) have refrigerators and others (22.3%) have freezers.

The fuel (material) used for cooking meals is either gas (80.6%), charcoal (1.6%) or both charcoal and wood (1.6%), gas and charcoal (13%) and gas, charcoal plus wood (1.3%). In the different houses of these precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët:

• 64.6% have both latrines, showers and sinks outside their home

• 19.7% have both latrines and showers 

• 12% are equipped with latrines, showers and washbasins

• 3.5% have only latrines, 0.3% have only showers

Showers and latrines (toilets) are sometimes connected to septic tanks (55.3%), public sewers (26.6%), cesspools (12%) or both public sewer and septic tanks (0.5%), cesspools and septic tanks (1.1%). 4.5% of the houses are neither connected to sewers nor pits. The waste is evacuated in the open air.       

Sanitation and Supply of Drinking Water and Electricity 

These results were obtained after interviews with the Head of the Sanitation and Urban Planning Department of the Port-Bouët City Hall. Indeed, the majority of houses are connected to septic tanks located in the courtyards of these houses and rainwater drainage is done through natural outlets.    In all the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët, there is no collective sanitation system but rather individual sanitation facilities. As for the supply of running water, households in some areas such as "Derrière wharf", "Vridi canal", "Adjouffou" are partially supplied by the network of the company with the monopoly of distribution of running water in Côte d'Ivoire (SODECI), while others, areas of "Gonzaqueville" and "Le Phare", are not connected to this network. Nevertheless, both categories of households obtain drinking water through the channel of parallel connections for a fee, through water dealers and traditional well water, installed in some households. Well water is mainly used for household and laundry while drinking water is reserved for consumption.

In terms of electricity supply to households, most of the precarious neighborhoods are connected to the networks of the company that has a monopoly on the distribution of electricity in Côte d'Ivoire (CIE). These are households in the "Abattoir 1", "Adjouffou", "Gonzaqueville", "Vridi canal", "Pointe aux fumeurs" zones. However, some households use anarchic connections to obtain electricity. They use piracy from neighbors who subscribe to the aforementioned monopoly company.  In the precarious "Toviato" district of the "Le Phare" area, there is no coverage of the networks of the company that has a monopoly on the distribution of electricity in Côte d'Ivoire. Households also use anarchic connections to obtain electricity.

Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the precarious neighbourhoods of Port- Bouët, in 2013

Source: INS/Technical Services of the Town Hall (2013)

Table 2: Percentages of heads of households of precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët

Table 3: Monthly Income Brackets of Heads of Household in Neighbourhoods precarious of Port- Bouët

Demographic Characteristics of Precarious Neighbourhoods 

The demographic characteristics of the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët in 2013, were provided by the Head of the Sanitation Service of the Town Hall of the said commune. They are set out in Table 1.                

Socio-Economic Characteristics of Households

Sex And Age of Heads of Household In households in precarious neighbourhoods, the head of the household is either the father at 84.5% or the mother at 15.5%. The age of fathers, considered as heads of household, is between 28 and 80 years, while the age of mothers, head of household, is between 28 and 61 years.

Marital Status, Types and Number of Individuals in the Household

Most heads of household are 61.2% married, 30.5% single (of whom 10.6% are cohabiting), 6.9% widowed and 1.3% divorced. The majority of families are "two-parent" (56.4%), "single-parent" (37.3%), "polygamous" (5.2%) and rarely "recomposed" (1.1%).  The number of people in the household is between two and ten. They are children (from 01 months to 09 years), adolescents (from 10 years to 19 years), adults (from 20 years to 50 years), pregnant or lactating women (from 18 years to 41 years) and elderly (over 50 years). 

Nationalities, Religions and Levels of Education of the Head of Household

The Heads of Households in the precarious neighbourhoods of Port-Bouët are of different nationalities. There are more Ivorians (57.7%) than foreigners (42.3%) (Table 2).

In addition, the heads of households in the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët are of diverse religious obedience: 47.9% of Muslims, 28.7% of evangelicals, 20.2% of Catholic religion, 2.7% of animists and 0.5% of other religions (Buddhists, Mahikari).  The two most common levels of education in households are secondary level (30.1%), primary level (27.4%) and those with no level (25.8%). 

Occupations And Monthly Incomes of Heads of Households

On the professional level, the majority of heads of households in the precarious districts of Port-Bouët work in informal activities, i.e. 76.6%. However, they work in several other fields of activity.

The monthly incomes of heads of household in the precarious neighbourhoods of Port-Bouët are shown in  Table 3. It appears that most (40.4%) of the heads of households in the precarious districts of Port-Bouët receive a monthly income of between 61,000-120,000 FCFA. Following them come those whose monthly income is less than or equal to 60,000 FCFA (35.6%).

Precarious Wages of Heads of Households in Precarious Neighborhoods

Among heads of household, 53.2% receive their salary "per day", 19.4% "per week" and 27.4% "per month". 67.8% have lower (non-regular) wages and 32.2% of heads of household receive frequent (regular) fixed wages.

Monthly Household Expenditure on Food                                                                                             

Table IV below shows the monthly household expenditure on food. It is counted among households, 44.1% who spend monthly 31,000-60,000 FCFA on food. These are the most numerous. Far behind them, barely 2.7% of households spend more than 121,000 FCFA per month on their food.

This work shows us that in the precarious neighborhoods of the seven areas of the commune of Port-Bouët, in Côte d'Ivoire, we mainly meet the "hard houses" (85.1%) of "barracks", "dry stone houses" and houses "of very poor quality". The materials used for the construction of these houses are mostly bricks (73.1%) followed by houses made of the combination of "bricks and wood" and "wood".

These data are the same as those of Atta et al. carried out in three precarious neighborhoods of Abidjan: "Zoé Bruno"), "Sagbé" and "Jean Folly" respectively in the communes of Koumassi, Abobo and Port-Bouët, in Côte d'Ivoire.   In these three precarious neighborhoods, they most often noted "hard houses" and are also for the most part common courtyards. But, Atta et al. observed inside these neighborhoods, barracks and some buildings constituting a minority of the constructions. Two-room (48%) and one-room (30%) dwellings are in the majority. 

In our study, not all precarious neighborhoods are covered by the network of the company with a monopoly on the distribution of running water in Côte d'Ivoire. They refuel with water, most of the time, through dealers or through the paying parallel connection channel. 

Wastewater is dumped on the streets because some neighborhoods do not have gutters. The others who have them end up with clogged gutters (drainage channels). These results are in line with those of Moles O et al. [1] and Dietrich J [4]. Indeed, these authors have revealed that precarious neighborhoods around the world lack basic infrastructure, public facilities, resources, security and adequate housing conditions.

Demographic, socio-economic and cultural of households and inhabitants of precarious neighbourhoods

From our results, it appears that in the neighborhoods surveyed, Ivorians predominate at 58%. The foreign population is strongly implanted at 42% with a significant fringe of Burkinabè (16.5%) and Malians (13.3%). These data are comparable to those of Atta et al. who noted that in the precarious neighborhoods of "Zoé Bruno", "Sagbé" and "Jean Folly", Ivorians were the most numerous while highlighting the presence of the foreign community. Following the crises in Côte d'Ivoire, many foreigners have returned to their country (post-electoral crises of 2011 and 2020) and more and more Ivorians have come to live in precarious housing.

With regard to the level of education of heads of households in precarious neighbourhoods in this study, the two most widespread levels of education are secondary level (30.1%) and primary level (25.8%). These results are different from the findings of Koné-Bodou et al. [16] more than half of the heads of households in the precarious neighborhoods of Anyama in Côte d'Ivoire are out of school (51%).

In the work of Bénie Bi et al. [17], carried out in which precarious neighborhoods of the commune of Yopougon in Abidjan, the rate of heads of households working in the informal sector is estimated at 79.52%. Our data collected in the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët (76.6%) corroborate theirs. 

The majority of heads of households in the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët (76%), have a monthly income less than or equal to 120,000 FCFA. In addition, 53.3% of heads of household receive their income daily and are 67.8% infrequent (non-regular). In short, heads of households in the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët have precarious incomes.

Diby K. [14] provides information on the average income of heads of households in the precarious neighborhoods of Abobo who earn less than 100,000fr/month, without specifying its frequency. These results are part of the monthly income bracket of heads of households in the precarious neighborhoods of Port-Bouët, although lower.

The objective of this study is to present the environment, the living environment, the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of households in precarious neighborhoods of the municipality of Port-Bouët-Abidjan. There are 65 precarious neighbourhoods in Port-Bouët, grouped into seven zones. In these neighborhoods, the majority of houses are "hard" (85.1%). The materials used for their constructions are made of "brick" at 73.1% of "relatively good" quality (69.9%). The roofs of the houses are almost all composed of 94.9% sheet metal, of "relatively good" quality (66.5%). The doors and windows are mainly made of wood at 58.2% and 88.3% respectively, of "relatively good" quality. The habitats are essentially two-room houses and are in common courtyards of medium size. The sanitation system is individual. Not all neighbourhoods are covered by the electricity and drinking water network. The poorest households are fed either through the channel of anarchic connections on the normal network or through the channel of water dealers.  The population of these neighborhoods is large and most heads of household are fathers (84.5%) who are between 26 and 80 years old, married, of Ivorian nationality and Muslim religion (47.9%). Their level of education is secondary (30.1%) and primary (27.4%). They work in the informal sector with a monthly income of between 61,000 -120,000 FCFA received "per day", but not regular. In these households, 44.1% spends monthly between 31,000 and 60,000 FCFA on food.

In short, our work reveals the states of environmental precariousness, the living and socio-economic environment in which the households of these neighborhoods live and are confronted with it every day.   

In perspective, it is envisaged the study of the food and nutritional practices of these households

Thanks 

We would like to thank:

• Mr Bouafou Kouamé Guy Marcel, my co-supervisor for his contribution to the writing of this article

• Mr.Deputy/mayor of the municipality of Port-Bouët

• Dr. EMMOU Sylvestre and all his collaborators

• Mr. MANLAN Aka Jean and MR TIEKOULA Koffi Mesmin, for having participated in the research interviews and facilitated the field surveys.

In addition, we say thank you to the Neighborhood Chiefs for their availability and cooperation at all stages of the field surveys.

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