MUHAMMAD SALEEM

LAHORE: Human health is profoundly affected by weather and climate and a mixture of environmental health challenges is emerging as a threat to healthcare services in Punjab despite considerable progress in health services delivery and reforms over the last few years. Deaths from extreme weather events such as heat stress, along with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, infectious disease outbreaks and malnutrition are on the rise. On top of that, Punjab is experiencing a population boom and consequently the burden of disease on limited healthcare resources is reaching critical levels.

These views were expressed by speakers in a function organized by the Project Management Unit-Punjab Public Health Agency (PMU-PPHA), Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department Punjab held to mark ‘World Environmental Health Day 2017.’

Provincial Minister for Environment Protection Begum Zakia Shahnawaz Khan, Minister for Primary & Secondary Healthcare, Khawaja Imran Nazir and Minister Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education, Khawaja Salman Rafique addressed on the occasion. Member Health Planning and Development Department Dr Shabana Haider and Captain Saif Anjum (retd), Secretary Environment Protection Department were also present.

A meeting of the technical working group was held to solidify long-term action plans for various policies including Punjab Environmental Health Strategy, Punjab Drinking Water Policy and other associated agendas.

The speakers maintained that effects of climate change aren’t limited to human health or healthcare systems either; they also undermine food and water supplies, overload the existing infrastructure and stress existing social protection systems. Within the Punjab, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues, air quality, land pollution, fertile land erosion, and contamination of natural resources are leading to rapid environmental delegation, they said.

Experts warned that Pakistan could approach “absolute scarcity” levels of water and face a drought as early as 2025. Together, these hazards pose threats not only to individual health but also to economic growth, food security and environmental sustainability in the province and for the country in whole. Efforts to include environmental considerations in all phases of policy making planning, and development must, be actively pursued, they remarked.

Existing health challenges cannot be surmounted comprehensively without adapting the “One-Health Triad” approach, and environmental health is the third critical component of this model, the experts said.

The follow-up meeting of the technical working group culminated with a commitment to adopt measures that improve knowledge sharing and collaboration between various stakeholders and ensure sustainable action towards national and provincial policy agendas for environmental health, drinking water and sanitation.

Dr Shabnam Sarfaraz, Chief Executive Officer contextualized environmental health in Punjab, its importance for human health and the need to adopt a cross-sectoral approach towards environmental challenges.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shabana Haider, Member Health, Planning & Development department, called on the stakeholders to increase cross sectoral collaboration and adopt effective measures to improve environmental health indicators in the Punjab.