India Water Foundation
Don’t you feel in addition to socio-economic determinants of human health, the impact of environmental, climate, ecosystem change and degradation on health should be increasingly recognized? Clean and safe drinking Water and Healthand nutrition is a fundamental human right and a key indicator of sustainable development but are we doing enough to maintain our Water, health and food systems?
The natural environment contributes significantly to people’s health through the quality of air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink.Social and economic factors mean that different segments of society are affected in differing ways and to varying degrees. Natural environments provide numerous challenges to human health and well-being, and many of these challenges are continuing to grow and develop, both in ways that we can reasonably forecast and ways that we cannot. On the one hand, it offers health enhancing economic and recreational opportunities, while on the other, it is threatened by activities such as transport, industrial processes, abuse of fossil fuels, agricultural and waste management practices. Time and again disasters and pandemics reinforce the public health principle that creating and maintaining healthy environments should be a priority of primary prevention.
Coordinating and acting across sectors will be necessary, as many different sectors play a crucial role (e.g. energy, industry/manufacturing, water and sanitation, agriculture, housing, transport) in determining environmental risks and conditions. In addition to this cross-sector dimension, there is a vertical dimension: action is needed to prevent biodiversity loss as it can have significant direct human health impacts if ecosystem services are no longer adequate to meet social needs. Indirectly, changes in ecosystem services affect livelihoods, income, local migration and, on occasion, may even cause or exacerbate political conflict. In the similar fashion climate change is altering ecosystems and the basic necessities to sustain human health. For example, variations in weather, sea levels, and temperature may adversely impact essential health needs like breathable air, safe drinking water, nutritious food, shelter, and therapeutic plants. Climate change, agriculture, food systems, diets and nutrition are interconnected. Climate change affects temperature and precipitation, as well as the frequency and severity of weather events.
Climate change has also resulted in the reduction of species population sizes, food systemsand the damage caused by the climate emergency will exacerbate changing diets. Around two-fifths of the world’s population is unable to afford a healthy diet. This has a huge impact on the health of the population, as poor diet, whether undernutrition or over-consumption, plays a significant role in health and health risks. Dietary changes are driven by a country’s wealth and level of urbanization, and dictated by increasing inequalities in society. The disruption to food supply as a result of climate change will only serve to throw up further challenges to providing nutrition for all.Change is even more important in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated the impact of nutrition on the progress of infectious disease. The strategies to keep the spread of COVID-19 under control have left some people isolated, and many have lost their jobs and experienced serious economic hardship. Zoonotic and other pathogenic infectious diseases, and epidemics and pandemics, such as COVID-19, and the strategies adopted to reduce their transmission can significantly worsen global food insecurity and further exacerbate the health of the populace.
As the global community builds on lessons learnt from COVID-19, a paradigm shift away from ‘business as usual’ is required to build a fairer and healthier world. One that restores humanity’s relationship with nature. Amongst key transitions that would be needed to achieve the vision of living in harmony with nature, a biodiversity-inclusive One Health transition can play a catalytic role in addressing the common drivers of biodiversity loss, disease risk and negative health outcomes. Promote policies and actions that enhance the livelihoods, health, and well-being of the population, as well as sustainable food production and responsible consumption of safe, diverse and nutritious foods to enable healthy diets and to protect and promote sustainable use of natural resources, biodiversity and ecosystems, and support mitigation and adaptation to climate change, as appropriate as they are set to become the most challenging risks populations will face in the coming decades. Finally, shouldn’t the Sustainable Development Goals, with their underpinning holistic philosophy, offer opportunities to make a lasting contribution to reducing the global disease burden attributable to environmental factors?
