7 April 2010 - People tend to come to cities in the hope for a better future, but not everyone in the city finds a better future, Peter Graaff, Country Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Afghanistan, told a reporter after observing World Health Day at Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital in Kabul today.

"In many ways, being the urban poor is a more difficult life than being the rural poor,” Mr Graaff said. “On the other hand, in the city, people gather together very closely. So the interventions can have a big impact.”

World Health Day is marked on 7 April each year. The theme for this year focused on urbanization and its effect on health.

To mark World Health Day, policy makers, communities and individuals from six cities of Afghanistan (Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat, Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif) are taking part in the global “1000 cities --1000 lives" campaign.

Activities include town hall meetings with mayors, cleaning campaigns, planting trees, taking family walks and promoting social solidarity by encouraging citizens to visit neighbours, orphanages, and patients in hospitals.

In Kandahar, representatives of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), WHO and hospitals distributed gifts to doctors and nurses to reward their good performance.

In Kabul, during a ceremony held by MoPH and WHO, Kabul Mayor M.Younus Nowandish outlined the plan for 2010: “We plan to introduce Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) instead of diesel and petrol for vehicles in the capital in order to reduce the air pollution and provide a healthy environment here.”

“We plan to plant another 200,000 trees on the hilltops outside the city next year,” he said. “We also plan to establish some recycling factories and ban using plastic bags in the city.”

However, a big problem remains: “Kabul has nearly 5 million people, and every day 2000 metric tonnes of rubbish are produced, but we have only the capacity of transferring 1600 metric tonnes out of the city,” he added.

Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Country Director for Afghanistan, agreed that this was the biggest health challenge that urban Afghans face: “People are coming to the city, but services are not available. Sanitation and clean water are among the biggest challenges, and the consequence is disease, particularly for the children and women."

A joint statement has been signed between Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), WHO and UNICEF which aims to improve health care and empower urban communities across the country.

The three bodies are committed to support inter-sectoral cooperation, proper planning and maintenance to keep drinking water safe. They also provide technical support to the MoPH, as well as advocacy, policy dialogue and promotion of public awareness on urban health issues and the concept of healthy cities.

World Health Day was first established by WHO in 1948 as a day to draw worldwide attention to a particular theme of major importance to global health.

Worldwide the year-long "1000 cities --1000 lives" campaign includes initiatives on public consultation and debate, city cleaning and greening exercises, public health messages, free medical check-ups, sports and other physical and school activities.

By Kangying Guo, UNAMA

Website: World Health Organization