Capital inducted into WHO programme

Comprehensive survey will be carried out to trace reasons behind residents’ poor health

ISLAMABAD: The federal capital has become the first ever city in the history of the country which has been registered in a network of global healthy cities.

“Very few cities across the region or the globe have been registered in this network,” said Dr Hasan Orooj, director of health services at the Capital Development Authority (CDA), told The Express Tribune on Friday.

He said that Islamabad was registered under the Healthy City Programme (HCP) which was launched last month in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pakistan and CDA Health Directorate.

Dr Orooj added that the Islamabad Mayor and CDA Chairman Sheikh Anser Aziz was also actively involved in the programme.

According to WHO, the aim of a healthy city is to create a health-supportive environment, achieve a good quality of life, provide basic sanitation and hygiene and to supply access to health care.

“Being a Healthy City depends not on the current health infrastructure, rather upon, a commitment to improving a city’s environs and a willingness to forge the necessary connections in the political, economic, and social arena,” WHO noted.

“The aim behind this is to make Islamabad the first ever model healthy city in Pakistan, under which efforts will be made to provide a healthy environment to the residents of the city to remain fit and healthy,” Dr Orooj explained.

While sharing details of the programme, he said that after the registration phase, a comprehensive survey will be carried out to trace the major reasons behind the poor health of the capital’s residents.

In this regard, a working committee has been established comprising of representatives from the WHO, health and other departments including planning, municipal administration, sanitation, education under CDA.

This committee will finalise a methodology based on the agreed indicators.

The CDA health official further said that the survey will be carried out in sectors F-6, F-7, G-7, G-8 and I-9 and the slums in these areas.

“These sectors have been identified on the basis of areas where the elite, middle class and lower middle class are living,” said Dr Orooj.

He added that the survey will focus on governance, water, sanitation, environment, education, socio-economic conditions among other issues.

“After finding the root causes, efforts will be made to fulfil these gaps or to address issues which will ultimately help to improve the health of residents,” he said.

Issues such as broken or leaking water pipes, poor drainage, sanitation system, poor quality of drinking water provision of poor quality of food items among others would be identified, the CDA official explained.

He further added that there was a general perception that people who live in the posh areas of the capital suffer from depression, anxiety, obesity due to overeating of junk food.

On the other hand, people living in underprivileged areas of the capital are believed to be suffering from malnourishment, communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and C. Moreover they suffer from water-borne diseases such as gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and others, Dr Orooj said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2017.