August 27, 2007
By Emily Visser
JOBURG is to send a representative to Kenya to take part in a conference on environmental health, prompted by the City's drive to raise the profile of the issue.
The deputy director for environmental health, Peter Manganye, will attend the four-day conference, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, to explore the extent of environmental health challenges and solutions in Africa, and how these can be applied to Johannesburg.
Running from 27 to 30 August at the Kenya International Centre, the theme is "Sustainable development of environmental health in Africa"; delegates will look at ways to raise the role and profile of environmental health across the continent.
Manganye, who has studied public health and safety management, will share experiences with his counterparts from environmental health and related fields across the continent. Topics under discussion include water and sanitation; environmental health diseases; waste management; food safety; and policy and legislation, among others.
The programme will include field visits, exhibitions, focus group discussions and addresses by specialists.
Pollution
Many of the continent's health problems are environmental in origin, the result of pollution of air, water and other natural resources.
In Johannesburg, informal settlements remain one of the biggest challenges to the environment, Manganye believes. Lack of services in these areas results in cross-pollution of inhabitants and surrounding areas.
"The inner city bad buildings syndrome also increases environmental health risks [in Johannesburg]."
Discussions at the conference will also guide Manganye's department of environmental management in its plans for the 2010 Fifa World Cup™. "Sector plans for environmental health, especially in terms of food safety and water monitoring, are most important during the event."
Food handlers are already being trained, Manganye confirms.
The South African Institute of Environmental Health believes the conference is crucial to raise the standards of environmental health in Gauteng to international expectations before the start of the World Cup.
Worldwide
In June, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released the first ever country-by-country analyses of the effects environmental factors have on health.
Worldwide, a quarter of all preventable illnesses was directly caused by environmental factors, it found. This increased to 35 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. The worst affected countries included Angola, Burkina Faso and Mali.
Every year 13 million people died worldwide as a result of the environment. In South Africa, 109 000 people died each year because of preventable environmental diseases, the report stated.
A statement by the Association of Public Health Officers Kenya, hosts of the event, stresses the low levels of environmental health awareness and lack of sustainable strategies for environmental controls in Africa. The organisation hopes to remedy this by enhancing inter-country collaboration, training environmental health officials and promoting research, among other things, during the conference.
The event is organised by the African International Federation for Environmental Health; for more information, visit the Association of Public Health Officers Kenya website.
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
- Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website
(www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency
(www.joburg.org.za)";
- If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original
article on this website;
- The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
-
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill
in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 |
