Cities in dire need of better sanitation

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/08/2010 8:38 AM

The Health Ministry renewed calls Wednesday for cities to focus on health concerns attributed to rapid urbanization, in line with celebrations to commemorate World Health Day, which this year is themed “Urban Health Matters”.

The Health Ministry’s Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health Tjandra Yoga Aditama said the government would accelerate sanitation development for settlement programs across 330 cities and urban areas in the country to meet a 2014 deadline.

Of that number, 63 areas are vulnerable to water waste problems, 80 suffer garbage or solid waste problems and eight are vulnerable to drainage problems.

The targets for the 2010-2014 mid-term national development plan for sanitation development include improving solid waste management for 80 percent of the households in urban areas.

The ministry is also offering awards for healthy cities and healthy traditional market, Tjandra said.

“Currently there are 77 cities in the country that are receiving guidance on improving their health condition, 33 of that number have gained the ‘healthy city’ award,” he said.

According to Tjandra there are several criteria used to judge whether a city is “healthy”, including housing conditions, public facilities, the availability of healthy food and healthy recreational or tourism areas.

Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said Wednesday that addressing the urban health issue required extra effort due to the unique nature of the issue.

“Urban health problems are more complex and varied because they are a combination of conventional and modern problems,” she said.

Conventional health problems, she said, included infectious diseases, malnutrition and environmental diseases, and that “modern” problems included degenerative diseases, obesity, drug abuse and pollution.

“There needs to be a commitment from the cities’ authorities for development that includes health awareness,” Endang said.

The government’s previous efforts to provide important infrastructure, access to social and health services, as well as education opportunities, have failed to keep up with urbanization and its associated problems, she said.

This year’s 62nd commemoration of the World Health Organization (WHO) aims to highlight urban health matters associated with worldwide rapid urbanization.

“About one-third of the total population of Southeast Asia lives in cities,” he said.

“This figure increases to more than one-half worldwide and is expected to grow to 60 percent by 2030 and 70 percent by 2050,” Indonesia’s WHO representative Kanchit Limpakarnjanarat said.

“Urbanization is increasing quickly in Indonesia. The national health agenda should make urban health one of its primary concerns,” he said. (dis)