Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

A Reality of Quality of Life Lived! Socio-economic Impact of Selected Informal Settlements on Neighbourhood Quality in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria

Eyenghe, Tari, Brown, Ibama

Asian Journal of Geographical Research · pp. 55–66 · Published 3 Aug 2023

10.9734/ajgr/2023/v6i2182

Abstract

The study assessed the selected informal settlements on neighbourhood quality in the Port Harcourt metropolis, Nigeria, and the Quality of Life (QoL) lived by residents. The objectives of the study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the residents of the selected informal settlements; identify the causes of informal settlements development in the study area; identify and assess the impact of informal settlements development on the neighbourhood quality of residents’ QoL lived; and identify physical planning measures to improve the neighbourhood quality and QoL of the selected informal settlements. The study adopted a quantitative approach and a descriptive research design. The study employed purposive and simple random sampling techniques for the selection of two (2) settlements namely: Mgbushimini and Nkpor and one hundred (100) respondents were determined and sampled for the study using the Taro Yamane formula at a 10% precision level. The study found that the socio-economic characteristics of residents of the settlements are age bracket 39-48 years of adults and mostly married with an average of 4-5 persons per household. Educational qualification is mostly vocational education, employed temporary, casual and contract and engaged in trading/business and craft/technical. The development of these informal settlements is attributed to low rent, cheap land and free access to land. The buildings are permanent structures, rented apartments of rooming houses of 2-3 rooms as habitable spaces on average. The impacts are poor sanitary conditions, poor layout of buildings and a dirty environment. These conditions have made the residents rate their neighbourhood quality and QoL lived as mostly “fair”, “unsatisfied” and “very unsatisfied”. The study recommended that urban studies should be carried out on the settlements to ascertain the socio-economic characteristics of residents and where needs a priority for improvement, the government should declare the study area blighted and carry out urban renewal schemes to improve the physical, social, and economic conditions, basic urban infrastructure, facilities and services should be provided to improve residents’ access, neighbourhood quality and QoL lived.

Quality of life socio-economic informal settlement neighbourhood quality Port Harcourt metropolis.

References (23)

  1. 1 United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). Informal Settlements (Habitat III Issue Paper 22). Nairobi, Kenya: UN-Habitat; 2015.
  2. 2 Eyenghe T, Brown I, Ibisiki TG. Developing sustainability in analysing sanitary and environmental conditions to improve quality of life in selected informal settlements of Port Harcourt municipality, Nigeria. Asian Journal of Geological Research (AJOGER). 2022;5(3):40-51.
  3. 3 Brown I, Eyenghe T. A qualitative narrative of lived experiences of informal settlements dwellers within Port Harcourt municipality during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology (AJEE). 202219(4), 47-57. DOI: 10.9734/AJEE/2022/v19i4418. [DOI]
  4. 4 Eyenghe T. Perceived Quality of Life in Informal Settlements in Yenagoa, Nigeria. V. Umoren and J. Atser (Eds.), Land use management & environmental sustainability in Nigeria. In: Book of readings in memory of Late Professor Joseph Uyanga, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Uyo, Nigeria. 2020;439-451.
  5. 5 Samantha W. Quality of Life study on slum dwellers (with special reference to Sri Lanka). International Journal of Scientific Research and Innovative Technology (IJSRIT). 2015;2(3):36-65.
  6. 6 Masoumeh B. The challenge of slums: Socio-economic disparities. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity. 2012;2(5):410-414. [DOI]
  7. 7 United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). Global report on human settlements 2007: Enhancing urban safety and security. Nairobi, Kenya. 2007;163-180. Available:www.unhabitat.org
  8. 8 Lansing JB, Marens RW. Evaluation of neighbourhood quality. Journal of the American Institute of Planners. 2007; 35:195-199. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/01944366908977953 [DOI]
  9. 9 Rahman NA, Omar D, Salleh AG. Determinant factors of neighbourhood quality. Planning Malaysia. 2012;10(3):1-16. DOI:10.21837/pmjournal.v10.i3.98 [DOI]
  10. 10 Cunningham WP, Cunningham MA, Sergio B. Environmental Science a Global Concern. New York, USA: McGraw Hill. 2005.
  11. 11 Syagga P. Land tenure in slum upgrading projects. The East African Review. 2011; 103–113.
  12. 12 Barcaccia B. Quality of Life: Everyone Wants It, But What Is It? 2013.
  13. 13 Retrieved 6th August, 2022 from https//www.forbes.com/.../2013/quality-of-life
  14. 14 United nations human settlements programme (UN-Habitat). Measurement of City Prosperity: Methodology and Metadata; 2016.Retrieved 6th September 2022 from
  15. 15 http://cpi.unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/resources /CPI%20METADATA.2016.pdf
  16. 16 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2018). OECD Better Life. Retrieved 8th September, 2022 from http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org
  17. 17 Creswell JW, Plano Clark VL. Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. Second Edition, Thousand Oaks, California, USA: Sage Publications, Inc.; 2011.
  18. 18 McCombes S. Sampling methods: Types, techniques and examples; 2022.Retrieved 25th August, 2022 from
  19. 19 https://www.scribbr.com>samplingmethods>types>techniques>examples
  20. 20 National Population Commission (NPC). Population Census Report of Nigeria. Lagos, Nigeria: Federal Government Press; 1991.
  21. 21 National Population Commission (NPC) (2018). NPC Puts Nigeria’s Population at 198 Million. Retrieved 27th May, 2022 from https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/04/npc-puts-nigerias-population-198m/
  22. 22 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (2016). General Household Survey – Panel Wave 3 (Post Planting) 2015-2016. Abuja, Nigeria: National Bureau of Statistics.
  23. 23 Olotuah AO, Aiyetan AO. Sustainable Low-Cost Housing Provision in Nigeria: A Bottom-up Participatory Approach. Proceedings of 22nd Annual ARCOM Conference. 2006;2:633-639.

Cited by 0

No indexed citations yet.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

0

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.