Residents’ Satisfaction with Residential Quality of Life in the Old Port -Harcourt Township of Port -Harcourt Municipality (Published)
This study assessed residents satisfaction with residential quality of life in two neighbourhoods of Port Rivers State, Nigeria – that is two from the old PortHarcourt township of the city. The study set out to ascertain residents’ satisfactiom of neighbourhood attributes, sanitation attributes and residential quality of life. Neighbourhood attributes were studied in situ without experimental manipulation and at one period in time, i.e. the study adopted a passive-observational research design. The study utilized both secondary and primary data sources. Primary data was collected using face-to-face administration of a largely pre-coded household questionnaire, to a probability sample of 193 respondents, drawn from the 2 neighbourhoods. Data analysis was based on responses from 193 questionnaires retrieved and the univariate analytical method was adopted. The study found, that residential quality of life in Port Harcourt Municipality was low with garbage on the streets and neighbourhoods. The study further revealed that most residents were dissatisfied with their residential conditions such as electricity supply, water supply and waste collection and disposal. The study further revealed that 45.5%of the residents in Old Port Harcourt townshipand 26.0% in Coronation Layoutwere unhappy with their residential quality of life. A key conclusion of the study was that the improvement of neighbourhood residential conditions as perceived by the residents was important in raising residential quality of life, and recommendations included that in the provision of public infrastructure and services , the perceptions and preferences of the beneficiaries/target population must be taken into account to achieve user satisfaction. To achieve adequate provision of infrastructure and amenities government should take advantage of funds available in the National Urban Development Bank, assistance from international development agencies and through private-public-partnership (PPP) arrangements.
Keywords: Port Harcourt, Residential Quality of Life, Residents’ Satisfaction