Mamre Community Health Project--demographic, social and environmental profile of Mamre at baseline.

Demographic, social and environmental information was collected from 4,623 residents in 870 Mamre households: 34.3% of the population were under 15 years and 4.4% over 65 years of age, while 2.7% of adults had had no education, 42.1% had only primary school education, 51.1% secondary school education and 4.1% had had some tertiary education. Education and age were inversely related. Of employable adults 64.7% were working. Community, social and personal services and manufacturing accounted for 76% of the male and 92% of the female jobs. Cape Town or Atlantis was the workplace for 78% of male and 87.2% of female workers. Of the labour supply 17.2% were unemployed; 75% of employed people were semi-skilled and unskilled workers. There was a mean of 5.3 persons per household, with a median of 3 rooms per household. Of the houses 18.4% were older than 80 years; 38% of households had inside taps and 98% had outside tap(s). Sewage disposal by the bucket system was used in 86% of households while 13% used flush toilets. The mean amount of money spent on fuel was R10.92 per person per month. The Mamre community is well past the initial phase of rural-urban transition in terms of its sociodemographic profile. At present, critical environmental infrastructural changes are being introduced.