Vision Statement on

3. FUTURE STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN
The key purpose of this Vision Statement on Environment and Human Health is to evolve a strategy for health risk reduction. It also offers a comprehensive approach to the environmental health management plans, which would be a systematic approach to estimate the burden of disease and injury due to different environmental pollutants.

The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states, inter alia,

“Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development, and that they are entitled to a healthy and productive life, in harmony with nature. The goals of sustainable development can only be achieved in the absence of a high prevalence of debilitating diseases, while obtaining health gains for the whole population requires poverty eradication.

There is an urgent need to address the causes of ill health, including environmental causes, and their impact on development, with particular emphasis on women and children, as well as vulnerable groups of society, such as people with disabilities, elderly persons and indigenous people”. The World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August- 4 September 2002 states, inter alia:

“Integrate the health concerns into strategies, policies and programmes for poverty eradication and sustainable development, reduce respiratory diseases and other health impacts resulting from air pollution, with particular attention to women and children, by

strengthening regional and national programmes including through public-private partnerships with technical and financial assistance to developing countries, supporting the phasing out of lead in gasoline;

strengthening and supporting efforts for the reduction of emissions through the use of cleaner fuels and modern pollution control techniques ….”

International and national deliberations have made it evident that environment-and-health concerns are rising higher on the broad environment and development agenda and that public health issues are predominantly making a niche on the environmental agenda and vice-versa.
Environmental Health is an inter-disciplinary and inter-agency subject and all the stakeholders are needed to be involved in the process. To make environmental health a really potent force in the consorted approach towards health for all and sustainable development in the 21^st Century, the role of the MoEF in this transformation of environmental health is significant. Therefore, all the future studies pertaining to environmental health would accomplish the following broad tasks:

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  To provide scientific information and data on the relationship between environmental factors and health in the process of development.
  
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  To develop health based criteria in preparation of national standards/legislations.
  
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  To build partnership with national, international and non-governmental agencies etc.
  
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  To promote the role of environmental health in the policy, planning and decision making in the matter of environment and development.
  

Therefore, the activities and programmes are required to be taken up for the protection of the public health due to environmental pollution as given in the following road map for action.