The Health Impacts of Peri-Urban Natural Resource Development

THIS BOOK IS the third step in an exploration which started with vector borne diseases and rural water development, and continued with a general look at all development activities and their health impacts. The concern which links these studies is that the majority of decisions affecting human health are made outside the health sector. Projects which adversely affect human health cannot be sustainable, hence non-health specialists form the intended audience for this review.

Poor peri-urban communities live and work in a transition zone between rural and urban environments. They are confronted by both traditional and modern health hazards, and increases in natural resource productivity may also carry the risk of increasing both types of health hazard. Various chapters cover each of the main peri-urban natural resource themes as well as common cross-cutting issues such as labour migration and food safety. After an introduction and chapters on health hazard classification and management (health impact assessments), each subsequent chapter begins with a summary of identified health hazard linkages. The topics covered are energy efficiency, crop production intensification, fisheries, livestock and recycling, and waste re-use. The chapters cover communicable and non-communicable diseases related to practices in the relevant field as well as related issues specific to each area. Most chapters give examples and short case studies to illustrate the points made, and longer case studies are given for Hubli-Dharwad, India and Kumasi, Ghana. There is also a chapter covering urban health research in low and middle-income countries which illustrates the main priorities and actions of seven major agencies (World Bank, UNICEF, WHO, USAID, GTZ, IDRC, IIED and the Mazingira Institute in Kenya). The book finishes with conclusions, recommendations and a lengthy bibliography.