The experts expressed these views during a seminar held to observe “World Environmental Health Day 2017”, here on Tuesday. Project Management Unit-Punjab Public Health Agency (PMU-PPHA), Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, Government of the Punjab organized the event in collaboration with UNICEF.
On this occasion, government officials from both federal and provincial departments and ministries including Punjab’s Environment Protection Department, environmental health experts, development professionals, and technical experts from UN agencies, as well as leading national and international organizations were also present.
Speaking on the occasion, Begum Zakia Shahnawaz Khan, Provincial Minister for Environment Protection, remarked that addressing the interactions of environment and health is vital for sustainable development.
Khawaja Imran Nazir emphasized upon the fact that environmental health today is not a single group’s challenge, we need the meaningful engagement of everyone to improve the health of the people of the Punjab and tackle emerging challenges.
Human health is profoundly affected by weather and climate, and despite considerable progress in health services delivery and reforms over the last few years, a mixture of environmental health challenges is emerging as a threat to healthcare services, the experts said and added that 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.
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.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Shabana Haider, Member Health, Planning and Development Department, called on the stakeholders to increase cross sectoral collaboration and adopt effective measures to improve environmental health indicators in the Punjab.