Household conditions in the 2024 MDHS

Housing materials and electricity

The survey estimated that 25 percent of Dzaleka households had electricity, compared with 16 percent in the rest of Malawi. Cement was the principal flooring material in about 70 percent of sampled Dzaleka households, while earth or sand accounted for 28 percent. The national comparison was almost the reverse: about 30 percent cement and 63 percent earth or sand.

These measures describe household characteristics, not the reliability, affordability or daily duration of electricity. Cement flooring also should not be treated as a complete measure of housing adequacy in a severely overcrowded settlement.

Water service and contamination

Only 30 percent of Dzaleka’s household population met the survey definition for at least basic drinking-water service; 70 percent received a limited service. The report says households elsewhere in Malawi were about 2.5 times as likely to have at least basic service.

Water-quality testing adds an important distinction. Two percent of Dzaleka’s population used source water with detected E. coli, compared with 35 percent in the national comparison. At the point of household consumption, however, contamination was detected for 78 percent in Dzaleka and 75 percent elsewhere in Malawi. The report interprets that gap as evidence that contamination can occur during transport, storage or use. A clean source therefore did not guarantee clean water at consumption.

Sanitation

The sanitation service ladder was stronger in the Dzaleka sample: 76 percent had at least basic service, 13 percent had limited service, 9 percent used unimproved sanitation, and about 3 percent had no facility or practised open defecation. The corresponding national comparison was 40, 29, 26 and 5 percent. Totals may differ slightly from 100 because of rounding.

Household composition and registration

Average household size was 5.1 people in Dzaleka and 4.2 elsewhere in Malawi. Women headed about 35 percent of Dzaleka households. The report estimated higher proportions of double orphans and single orphans among children under 18 in Dzaleka: approximately 6 and 15 percent, compared with 2 and 11 percent in the national comparison.

Birth registration among children under five was estimated at 92 percent in Dzaleka and 78 percent elsewhere in Malawi.

Literacy, internet and insurance

Among respondents aged 15 to 49, women’s literacy was similar in Dzaleka and the national comparison, at 75 and 77 percent. Figure 2.5 reports male literacy at 97 percent in Dzaleka and 83 percent elsewhere. The executive summary instead gives the second figure as 87 percent; users should consult the underlying microdata before relying on that comparator.

Internet use in the previous 12 months was higher in the Dzaleka sample: 27 percent of women and 48 percent of men, compared with 15 and 27 percent respectively elsewhere in Malawi. Fewer than 1 percent of women and no interviewed men in Dzaleka reported health-insurance coverage.