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Disclaimer

Report, 1 February 2005 (from Kennedy Osano, Organising Secretary)

Pumwani Maternity Hospital, the largest maternity hospital in East and Central Africa, is situated in Nairobi. It was founded in 1926 as a community-based hospital for low-income earners. It has a bed capacity of 323. On average 70 children are borne each day.

Though the hospital has been providing its services to its very best ability, it has a few challenges. One of the greatest challenges is environmental pollution and hazards around the hospital. Members of EEIU WESNO and Kenyatta University Environmental Club realized this when they visited the hospital, and later organised a clean-up for the area around the hospital.

The project's theme was 'Reducing Health Risks from Environmental Pollution and Hazards'. A report from this activity showed that, in many locations around the world, the general environment (air, water, and land), workplaces and even individual dwellings are so badly polluted that the health of hundreds of millions of people is adversely affected. This is due to past and present developments in consumption and production patterns and lifestyles, in energy production and use in industry, in transportation etc, with little or no regard for environment protection.

The overall objective for this project was to maintain the environment to a degree that human health and safety was not impaired or endangered and yet encourage development to proceed.

Activities advocated

Nationally determined action programmes (with international assistance where necessary) in this area should be:

A) Urban air pollution

• Develop appropriate pollution control technology on the basis of risk assessment and epidemiological research for the introduction of environmentally sound production processes and suitable safe mass transport
• Develop air pollution control capacities in large cities, emphasizing enforcement programmes and using monitoring networks, as appropriate

• Support research and develop programmes for applying prevention and control methods to reduce indoor air pollution, including the provision of economic incentives for the installation of appropriate technology
• Develop and implement a health education campaign, particularly in developing countries, to reduce the health impact of domestic use of biomass and coal

• Develop appropriate water pollution control technologies on the basis of heath risk assessment
• Develop water pollution control capacities in large cities

• Develop mechanisms to control the distribution and use of pesticide to minimize the risks to human health by transportation, storage, application and residual effects of pesticides used in agriculture and preservation of wood

Since this formed the basis of the discussion, the Chair of EEIU WESNO, Mr. Samuel Ochieng, on behalf of EEIU WESNO, thanked Prof. Wangare Mathae for winning the Nobel Peace Prize and banning the use of polythene bugs in Kenya and the Kenyan Ministry for Local Government, which has planned to construct a waste disposal plant at Dandora, which has the greatest heap of solid waste in Nairobi.

Activities:

• Develop appropriate solid waste disposal technologies on the basis of health risk assessment
• Develop appropriate solid waste disposal in large cities

• Undertake, as a matter of urgency, research on the effects of human health on the increasing ultraviolet reaching the earth's surface as a consequence of depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer
• On the basis of the outcome of the research, consider taking appropriate remedial measure to mitigate the above-mentioned effects on human beings

1. Scientific and technological means: Although technology to prevent or abate pollution is readily available for a large number of problems, for programmes and policy development countries should undertake research within an intersectoral framework. Such efforts should include collaboration within the business sector. Cost/effect analyses and environmental impact assessment methods should be developed through corporate international programmes and applied to the setting of priories and strategies in relation to health and development.

2. Human resource development: Comprehensive national strategies should be designed to overcome the lack of qualified human recourses, which is a major impediment to progress in dealing with environmental health hazards. Training should include environmental and health officials at all levels, from manager to inspectors. More emphasis needs to be placed on including the introduction of environmental health in the curriculum of secondary schools and universities and on educating the public.

3. Capacity building. Each country should develop the knowledge and practical skills to foresee and identify environmental health hazards, and the capacity to reduce the risks. Basic capacity requirements must include knowledge about environmental heath problems and awareness on the part of leaders, citizens and specialists; operational mechanisms for intersectoral and intergovernmental cooperation in developing planning and management in planning and management in combating pollution; arrangement for involving private and community interests in dealing with social issues; delegation of authority and distribution of resources to intermediate and local levels of government to provide frontline capabilities to meet environmental health needs.

This page was last updated on 17 February 2005.