WSSD Plenary Session – Health, 26 August
2002
Statement
by the Norwegian Minister of the Environment, Børge Brende
Mr.
Chairman,
Honourable Ministers
We are gathered
at a Summit that could and should become the most important international
meeting of this decade.
Since we met in Bali we have been reminded again why we cannot
afford not to make it happen:
13 million people are threatened by drought and hunger in southern Africa.
Millions have been struggling to fight the damaging consequences of extreme
weather conditions in Asia, North America and Europe. A vast blanket of
pollution threatens food security and human health in South Asia.
Since we met in Bali we have been reminded again why our natural resources are
the very foundation on which human welfare and health depends.
Mr. Chairman,
Honourable Ministers
We know there are powerful linkages of the environment to
health and we know there are powerful linkages of health to poverty.
Almost one-third of global diseases may be caused by environmental
degradation. It is estimated that only one in five children of the poorest segments of
society will live to reach the age of five, mainly because of polluted air and
water. Action is
needed to secure children’s rights to grow up in healthy environments.
Through simple environmental interventions we could prevent
roughly 60 per cent of diseases from acute respiratory infections, 90 per cent
from diarrhoea disease, 50 per cent from chronic respiratory conditions and 90
per cent from malaria.
We know that such interventions – in countries where these
disease burdens often come on the top of an HIV/AIDS catastrophe – can save the
lives of millions of people, people who if given the chance can contribute to
building their societies, eradicating poverty and achieve sustainable
development.
We know - But can we mobilise the political will here in
Johannesburg to break the vicious circle between ill health, poverty and
environmental degradation?
Can we agree on a time bound target on sanitation and undertake
concrete actions to achieve the Millennium goal to halve by 2015 the proportion
of people who are unable to reach, or to afford, safe drinking water? Will we
have related commitments to meet the needs of the 2,5
billion
people who lack basic sanitation?
One of my greatest concerns is the threat posed by hazardous chemicals to human health and
ecosystems.
We know that even if the international community has achieved
important progress in limiting use and releases of certain persistent organic
chemicals, the total use of chemical substances and products is growing at an
alarming rate. We will support programmes to combat the risks from hazardous
chemicals, with a particular focus on old stocks of pesticides in Africa.
The question is whether we can now decide to commit and
undertake concrete actions to make sure that by 2020 chemicals should not be
used and produced in ways that have adverse effects on human health and
the environment? And will there be an adequate international response to the
threat caused by heavy metals?
Mr. Chairman,
We have the mandate to undertake ambitious actions and commit
to ambitious goals to protect
human welfare and health from environmental degradation.
We have the mandate to deliver concrete results here in
Johannesburg. We cannot afford to fail!
