Urban Environment Health Hazards and Health Equity

Abstract

When humans started to live in large numbers in the close proximity to each other approximately 5000 years ago, health challenges included the import of water, food and other essentials to the population, and transport of excreta and other waste products away from the population. Many million people in low-income and informal settlements (“SLUMS”) in cities of our era face similar health challenges. As most of the urban slum
dwellers live in tropical countries, their health is also threatened by a variety of tropical diseases influenced by social and environmental determinants. Health equity can only be achieved by “leveling up” living conditions for the poor and by reducing differential exposure and vulnerabilities among different groups in society. People are exposed to a whole variety of factors that can either promote good health or be hazardous to health, including the physical living environment. Modern either can improve health via their material, service-provision, cultural, & aesthetic attributes. They also offer opportunities for cost-effective interventions that can serve many people even if carried out on a small scale. Exciting health-promoting infrastructure (e.g. drains and distribution networks for kerosene for cooking) can, in some situations, be upgraded to meet the local health
demands. Health hazards and inequities remain, however, and new threats have emerged, but the knowledge and technologies for creating a healthy city are available.