Tareen Rahman :
The four-day International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH) 2015 will be held from May 24-27 in Bangladesh, the first time in a South Asian country.
Since Bangladesh is an important developing country of South Asia, the International society for Urban Health is organizing the conference here with a view to promoting the idea of urbanization with its impact on environment, economy and social factors to deliver benefit all segments of the population, say health experts.
They said the conference aims to address the urbanization in such a way that promotes equality, development and health. It will be hosted in Bangladesh at a meaningful time when the entire nation is realizing
the importance of urban health for sustainable development.
As such, the conference will offer an opportunity for the participants to make connections and generate collaborative relationships with colleagues from around the world. It will also help build global, regional, national and local action plan to achieve the sustainable development goals and targets.
The most important outcome of the conference will be formation of “Dhaka Declaration” to be endorsed by the policy makers and thus be made accountable for the implementation of planned course of actions.
Besides, the draft of the Dhaka Declaration will be finalized and adopted in the last day of the IUCH conference.
Acording to Bangladesh Health Watch (BHW ) Report 2014, deteriorating healthcare system along with polluted water, sanitation problems and environmental hazards remain a major challenge in the rapidly growing cities of Bangladesh. This situation needs to be addressed immediately as Bangladesh is going to be an urban country by 2039.
There is a huge rich-poor gap in the urban areas of Bangladesh with the slum population facing serious consequences in terms of food, nutrition, water, sanitation and healthcare. “Absence of basic amenities, all converge, is making the urban health status in the slums worse than that in the rural areas,” it said, adding only 36.3 per cent slum dwellers are food secured against 52.4 per cent such people in rural areas.
The report titled “Urban Health Scenario: Looking Beyond 2015” further said approximately 30 to 45 pc of slum dwellers are ill and 60 pc of their children are chronically malnourished at any given time.
The Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) organized a three-day event on Universal Health Coverage from April 9-11 where Professor Dr Malabika Sarker of James P Grant School of Public Health of BRAC University presented the Bangladesh Health Watch (BHW) Report 2014.
According to Dr Malabika Sarker, Bangladesh has made a slow progress in reaching universal access to safe water and sanitation due to growing poverty in the urban areas, insufficient infrastructure and inadequate institutional responsibility,.
She was of the opinion that life in urban areas, especially in big cities like Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh is marred with air, noise and water pollution. This was giving rise to health hazards directly besides leaving indirect impacts on health due to largely unplanned use of land and water bodies, road-traffic and high population density, she added.
Pollution is the root cause of increase in ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, acute lower respiratory infections in children, cardiovascular diseases, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, diarrhoea, jaundice, enteric fever, etc in Bangladesh.
Due to poor planning, it is very common to find a residential zone or health and education institute beside a factory or a commercial hub. Also, housing in urban areas is featured by high population density, poor ventilation, and lack of open space for leisure or children’s playgrounds, it reads.
The report said the Health Ministry is responsible for providing secondary and tertiary healthcare services in urban areas, while the Local Government Ministry is responsible for primary healthcare there.
Urban expert, Prof Nazrul Islam is of the opinion that Bangladesh needs urban-rural mix development planning as the country is moving towards rapid urbanization.
Open space, playgrounds and open water bodies in the cities are a must for health care in cities and city planners have to consider health, environment and cultural options.
PPRC Executive Chairman Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman said in the same discussion that that although the poor people of the villages migrated to the cities looking for employment opportunities and their income rose, but the social indicators , health and education ,did not improve much and urban poverty, therefore, must be an important agenda for the policymakers.
The four-day International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH) 2015 will be held from May 24-27 in Bangladesh, the first time in a South Asian country.
Since Bangladesh is an important developing country of South Asia, the International society for Urban Health is organizing the conference here with a view to promoting the idea of urbanization with its impact on environment, economy and social factors to deliver benefit all segments of the population, say health experts.
They said the conference aims to address the urbanization in such a way that promotes equality, development and health. It will be hosted in Bangladesh at a meaningful time when the entire nation is realizing
the importance of urban health for sustainable development.
As such, the conference will offer an opportunity for the participants to make connections and generate collaborative relationships with colleagues from around the world. It will also help build global, regional, national and local action plan to achieve the sustainable development goals and targets.
The most important outcome of the conference will be formation of “Dhaka Declaration” to be endorsed by the policy makers and thus be made accountable for the implementation of planned course of actions.
Besides, the draft of the Dhaka Declaration will be finalized and adopted in the last day of the IUCH conference.
Acording to Bangladesh Health Watch (BHW ) Report 2014, deteriorating healthcare system along with polluted water, sanitation problems and environmental hazards remain a major challenge in the rapidly growing cities of Bangladesh. This situation needs to be addressed immediately as Bangladesh is going to be an urban country by 2039.
There is a huge rich-poor gap in the urban areas of Bangladesh with the slum population facing serious consequences in terms of food, nutrition, water, sanitation and healthcare. “Absence of basic amenities, all converge, is making the urban health status in the slums worse than that in the rural areas,” it said, adding only 36.3 per cent slum dwellers are food secured against 52.4 per cent such people in rural areas.
The report titled “Urban Health Scenario: Looking Beyond 2015” further said approximately 30 to 45 pc of slum dwellers are ill and 60 pc of their children are chronically malnourished at any given time.
The Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) organized a three-day event on Universal Health Coverage from April 9-11 where Professor Dr Malabika Sarker of James P Grant School of Public Health of BRAC University presented the Bangladesh Health Watch (BHW) Report 2014.
According to Dr Malabika Sarker, Bangladesh has made a slow progress in reaching universal access to safe water and sanitation due to growing poverty in the urban areas, insufficient infrastructure and inadequate institutional responsibility,.
She was of the opinion that life in urban areas, especially in big cities like Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh is marred with air, noise and water pollution. This was giving rise to health hazards directly besides leaving indirect impacts on health due to largely unplanned use of land and water bodies, road-traffic and high population density, she added.
Pollution is the root cause of increase in ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, acute lower respiratory infections in children, cardiovascular diseases, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, diarrhoea, jaundice, enteric fever, etc in Bangladesh.
Due to poor planning, it is very common to find a residential zone or health and education institute beside a factory or a commercial hub. Also, housing in urban areas is featured by high population density, poor ventilation, and lack of open space for leisure or children’s playgrounds, it reads.
The report said the Health Ministry is responsible for providing secondary and tertiary healthcare services in urban areas, while the Local Government Ministry is responsible for primary healthcare there.
Urban expert, Prof Nazrul Islam is of the opinion that Bangladesh needs urban-rural mix development planning as the country is moving towards rapid urbanization.
Open space, playgrounds and open water bodies in the cities are a must for health care in cities and city planners have to consider health, environment and cultural options.
PPRC Executive Chairman Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman said in the same discussion that that although the poor people of the villages migrated to the cities looking for employment opportunities and their income rose, but the social indicators , health and education ,did not improve much and urban poverty, therefore, must be an important agenda for the policymakers.
