Protect Environment to save people’s Lives on African continent, WHO advises

BY SAMUEL NABWIISO

African Ministers Responsible for Health and Environment are meeting in Libreville Gabon in West to attend the Third Interministerial Conference on Health and Environment. The objective of the policy makers meeting is to identify emerging environmental threats to people’s health and agree on a strategic action plan for the region.

According to the press statement from the UN Environment the conference   is running from the 6^th-9^thNovember 291 and is jointly organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Environment and among others the participants will discuss how to turn health and environmental policies into action.

In the statements, it’s believed that in Africa as region death is occurring due to Environmental related issues such as poor access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation which has given birth to the outbreak of diseases like cholera Dysentery among other disease.

The continent is also experiencing the outbreak of disease related to global warming which has offered conducive environment for vectors breeding such as Mosquitos which transmit malaria in most African countries.

     

 Addressing participants at the official opening of the meeting , Dr Matshidiso Moeti the World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa said African Governments need to protect the Environment from all forms of contamination that is when the region will eliminates all death forms related to Environmental diseases.

Dr. Moeti the WHO head for Africa 

    

“From the air we breathe to the water we drink, to the places we live and work the environment is intimately linked to our health unfortunately for millions of Africans, the environment can make them sick and even kill them. With climate change this is likely to only get worse. We must urgently turn this situation around,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti,

Nearly 300 delegates including Health, Environment and Finance Ministers, as well as representatives from regional political and economic organizations, big cities, multilateral agencies and experts from 54 countries are participating in the Conference.

The conference comes a decade after the historic endorsement of the Libreville Declaration by the African Ministers of Health and Environment which committed governments to take the required measures to stimulate synergies between health, environment and other relevant sectors. It also comes ahead of the 2018 UN Biodiversity Conference to be held on African soil in Egypt this month and will discuss how to mainstream biodiversity into health sector, among other sectors.

One of the participant from Somalia attending the conference.

The UN Environment officer for Africa Dr. Juliette Koudenoukpo Bio explained that for the African Continent to progress there’s the need to interlink environment and Human health 

 “Tackling the interlinkages between environment and human health can provide a common platform and multiplier effect to sustain progress across many of the Sustainable Development Goals and Africa’s Agenda 2063 in a more cost-effective and beneficial manner. By working together, the health and environment sectors have the potential to design mutually reinforcing policies and strategies and turning them into concrete actions” said Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo,.

The Conference consists of an expert meeting from 6 to 7 November 2018 and a ministerial segment to be held from 8 to 9 November.