(HEMA) Initiative. - OAS

PREVIOUS DOCUMENTS Base Document for the Meeting of HEMA
Food and agriculture
The availability of food for balanced nutrition constitutes a critical health requirement. Food production,
distribution and handling involve the risk of transmitting diseases and producing environment
impacts, water and soil pollution, erosion, deforestation and salinity. Although, generally
speaking, the capacity of the Americas to produce food is adequate, with significant differences
between countries, many communities are exposed to the above mentioned hazards and impacts.
To meet the needs of growing populations it became increasingly necessary to resort to the use
of pesticides, water transfers between different hydrographic basins, deforestation practices and
to the building of reservoirs. All of the above produces negative effects on health and environment
(land degradation, erosion and water pollution).
Water resources
Safe water is essential for human survival and health. Although the Americas are rich in basic
water resources, even taking into account their irregular distribution, their resources -and that of
the aquatic species they contain to the benefit of human wellbeing- is diminishing due to environmental
damage; waste habits and demographic pressures arising from population increases
and urban concentration; as well as unsustainable standards of production and consumption.
Since no adequate correlation between protection measures and social-economical development
has been established, some areas are already suffering a shortage of unpolluted water. The
pollution of oceans and of fresh water with industrial, agricultural and municipal waste, together
with poisoning and the excessive harvest of aquatic species are more generalized. Some damages
are already almost irreparable.
Energy
The countries of the Region include some of the greatest and smallest consumers of energy of
the planet. Consumption levels increase at a rate compatible with the growth of industry and
transportation, contributing to the pollution of local air and of the air blown by the wind and to the
global transfer of gases that cause the greenhouse effect.
Although the relatively high use of hydroelectric energy by the Region reduces its contribution
to fossil fuel emissions, the reservoirs involved in hydroelectric generation had an ecologic cost.
Another phenomenon characteristic of the Region is the constant domestic use of biomass fuels
that in some Caribbean countries represent up to 80%, with resulting negative effects, such as
deforestation and accelerated erosion, the loss of soil nutrients and increased health problems
arising from air pollution in closed rooms.
Industry and mining
Industrial development helps to improve the standard of living and produces other social benefits,
including higher employment levels. But when it is incorrectly administered, its environmental
effects include the undue use or depletion of basic and extracted resources, the generation and
distribution of hazardous waste, the excessive concentration of human settlements and the
destruction of the aesthetic and natural values of the natural environment.
Human health can be impaired through exposure to hazardous substances and to accidents at
the workplace, as well as by dangerous products, by production and transportation accidents, and
by air, soil, water and food pollution. The Americas have a special concern with regard to mining
activities, given their current economic significance, the possibilities of mining reserves development
in the continent, and the toxicity of the extraction processes and the resulting waste.
The use of clean technologies and less intensive exploitation patterns appear as a challenge that
the Region has to face in order to take advantage of its mining potential within the frame of sustainable
development.
Meeting of Ministers of Health and Environment of the Americas | 21