Riverlea celebrates World Environmental Health Day
22 September 2015
The Riverlea Recreation Centre was abuzz with activity on Friday September 18 as the City of Johannesburg celebrated World Environmental Health Day.
This was one of many activities held throughout the city ahead of September 26 – the day officially declared World Environmental Health Day by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Every year millions of people – among them children – get sick and die as a result of pollution and other environmental-related illnesses.
In Africa, 23% of deaths result from poor hygiene. South Africa also has a high level of environmental diseases burden, with 16% of all deaths attributed to these avoidable health hazards, according to Peter Manganye, the City’s Director of Environmental Health. Themed “Children Are Our Future, Let’s Protect their Environment and Health”, the event attracted dozens of residents of Riverlea and surrounding areas.
They listened attentively as Manganye and the City’s Executive Director of Health, Dr Refik Bismilla, urged them to ensure that children were taken good care of. Dr Bismilla said the purpose of the celebrations was to protect the health of children.
“Environmental health is about the area in which we live. It’s not just about clinics, hospitals and doctors. It’s about keeping our environment clean. If we don’t do that we’ll cause poor health,” he said.
The WHO launched World Environmental Health Day in 2010 after identifying the need to teach people about the importance of keeping the environment clean.
“WHO decided to have this special day to talk and take action around environmental health. The City has been holding similar events in each region for the past few weeks to educate communities and raise awareness around the protection of children’s health. Every year 10 million children under the age of five die around the world because of unhealthy environment. Air pollution and polluted water, illegal rubbish dumping and diseases spread by rodents result in diarrhoea, asthma and malaria, while 100 000 children drown and 50 000 are affected by fire.”
Dr Bismilla encouraged pregnant mothers to stop drinking and smoking as this affected their unborn children’s health.
“We have to promote awareness of our environment. Poverty does not mean we have to live in dirty surroundings. Let’s take care of our environment to protect our children. Their health is in our hands.”
Manganye said Riverlea was an old township with varying degrees of social challenges such as unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse and pollution.
“Illegal dumping is a huge problem that results in the infestation of rodents. Since we launched the rodents extermination project in 2012 with the rollout of cages and owls, more than 30 000 rats have been trapped in Alexandra alone.
“Using the owls is a bit of a challenge because older residents are superstitious but the youth are more receptive. That programme is still continuing,” he said.
A number of municipal-owned entities, including Pikitup, Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo and Emergency Management Services as well as non-governmental organisations such as the Tranquillity Rehabilitation Centre and Helping Hands also took part in the activities.