Environment,Ecology & Hygiene - Part 3

ENVIRONMENT,ECOLOGY& HYGIENE

PART 3

HUMAN INTERACTION WITH THE ENVIRONMENT

Urbanisation and industrialisation
•    Urbanisation and industrialisation bring rural people into urban centres that may not be ready to handle the additional sanitary needs.
•    Ethiopia is at the stage of rapid development with priorities in agriculture and industry.
•    Currently small-scale industries that bridge agriculture and industrialisation are booming.
•    Large-scale industries, such as textiles, food and cement, are growing.
•    The need to improve and expand social infrastructures such as water supply, waste management and health services is obvious in order to handle the needs of the growing urban centres.
•    As a healthworker you need to understand that these developments have environmental health risks due to overcrowding, inappropriate waste management and a shortage of safe drinking water.

Development as a means of interaction
•    Assume for a minute that a textile factory is planned to operate in your woreda. Now, think what benefits and disadvantages may arise from the introduction of this factory.
•    In this diagram, the two arrows lying between ‘human activities’ and ‘environment’ indicate the relationship between them, i.e. that development requires resources from the environment (forward arrow) and, as a result, waste could be generated as a by-product (backward arrow). 

•    In fact, there are three possible types of interaction: humans can affect the environment, the environment can affect humans, and humans and the environment can co-exist (where they sustain each other).
•    The arrows indicate the negative effect if the generated waste is not properly handled. This affects the environment in the form of pollution of air, water, etc., and can have a negative influence on development.
•    Matters of development and health have been on the agenda in UN international conferences and meetings.
•    The issue of sustainable development is a key message for the friendly coexistence between development and the environment.
•    The World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as:
I.    development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

THE ROLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN PUBLIC HEALTH
•    Environmental health is a part of public health where the primary goal is preventing disease and promoting people’s health.
•    Environmental health is associated with recognising, assessing, understanding and controlling the impacts of people on their environment and the impacts of the environment on the public.
•    The role of the environmental healthworker, therefore, includes the following functions of public health:
      I.    Improving human health and protecting it from environmental hazards.
     II.    Developing liaison between the community and the local authority, and between the local and higher levels of administration.
     III.    Acting independently to provide advice on environmental health matters; designing and developing plans of action for environmental health.
     IV.    Initiating and implementing health/hygiene, sanitation and environmental  programmes to promote understanding of environmental health principles.
      V.    Enforcing environmental legislation.
     VI.    Monitoring and evaluating environmental health activities, programmes and projects.
•    You, as a healthworker, are very much involved in all of the above except (V) and (VI), which are mainly carried out by the woreda environmental healthworker. However, the kebele administrator may ask you to help with the enforcement of environmental legislation, if deemed apprioriate.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PLANNING
•    Environmental health planning refers to a systematic process by which goals are established, facts are gathered and analysed, alternative proposals and programmes are considered and compared, resources are measured, priorities are established, and strategies and activities are designed to meet the established goals or objectives within a specified period of time.
•    You, as part of kebele cabinet, will be requested to prepare an environmental health plan. The approach to planning is similar to that described in the Health Management, Ethics and Research Module. However, the primary focus is what makes it different. The following planning steps are suggested.

IDENTIFYING THE NEEDS AND GAPS
•    This is essentially an inventory (or list) of problems related to environmental health in your local context. You can use various tools in order to identify these problems.
•    Environmental health survey: This is a systematic survey using a questionnaire. The questionnaire contains basic indicators of environmental health such as latrine availability, source of drinking water, waste disposal systems, cleanliness of the community, etc.
•    You will need to do some statistical analysis (proportions and averages) to refine basic indicators of environmental health for your local context. You must be careful when designing a survey as it requires time, expertise and resources.
•    You can plan it in coordination with the woreda environmental healthworker.
•    Rapid/quick assessment: This is the usual method that helps you gain a quick overview of the range of problems.
•    The usual data collection tools that you can use for this are focused or group discussion, physical observation with checklists and interviewing people.

PRIORITY SETTING
•    It is difficult to handle all identified problems due to resource limitations.
•    You need to know in advance the available resources in the kebele.
•    Resources can be mobilised from government, community, private organisations and NGOs.
•    Do not rely too much on governmental resources as there are always limitations.
•    Mobilising community resources is the best option that could be sustained.
•    Priorities are then made on the basis of the depth and severity of the problem, the feasibility and the degree of community concern and willingness to be involved in the resource mobilisation.

SUMMARY
•    The historical perspectives show us that hygiene and sanitation have a deep-rooted origin. The practice of hygiene and sanitation is part of our daily life.
•    There are differences between hygiene, sanitation and environmental health. While hygiene focuses on individual personal hygiene/cleanliness, sanitation often refers to waste management, and environmental health has a broader meaning beyond hygiene and sanitation, referring to where we live, work and play. The focus of environmental health is on how environmental risk factors affect human health.
•    Environmental health plays a major role in the prevention and control of communicable diseases caused by pathogens, such as diarrhoea, and other diseases and conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease caused through inhalation of air pollution.
•    There are various environmental health risks that affect our health. These include water and air pollution, food contamination and the disposal of wastes into our environment.
•    The interaction between humans and the environment has various forms. Urbanisation, industrialisation and development are the major forms of interaction. We should remember and try to control the disadvantages of development and not focus only on the benefits.
•    Environmental health planning requires you to gain knowledge of problems in your area and to identify needs and gaps, to set priorities and find resources to solve the problems.