ISSN 1683-3805

The DelPHE African Academy of Environmental
Health (AAEH) project
Dr. Tony Grimason & Dr. Koos Engelbrecht
Dr. Tony Grimason, Environmental Health,
Department of Civil Engineering, University of
S t r a t h c l y d e , G l a s g o w , U K .
(A.M.Grimason@strath.ac.uk)
Dr. Koos Engelbrecht, Department of Environmental
Health, Tshwane University of Techn
o l o g y , P r e t o r i a , S o u t h A f r i c a .
(engelbrechtjc@tut.ac.za).
“Success in tackling environmental health
problems depends very much on collaboration
between ministries and agencies. Members
States, WHO and partners should work
together to apply these tried and tested methods
and knowledge to make the environment
more healthy.”
(African Regional Health Report, 2006)
Introduction
The average life expectancy of someone living
in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is about half of
that of someone living in a developed country
(Figures 1 & 2). For the SSA region as a whole
life expectancy today is lower than it was
three-decades ago. Several countries in the
Southern African Development Community
(SADC) have suffered catastrophic reversals
in life expectancy since the middle of the last
century: 20 years in Botswana, 16 years in
Swaziland and 13 years in Lesotho and Zambia
(HDR, 2007). The reduction in life expectancy
over this period may be attributed to
may environmental health and socioeconomic
factors e.g. HIV/AIDS and other
communicable and non-communicable diseases
associated with urbanisation, overcrowding,
insanitary conditions, unwholesome
water supplies and industrialisation.
Today 25 African countries (including 6
SADC countries) are amongst the 26 low human
development countries in the world with
some of the lowest human development indicators
of development (Table 1; HD Report,
2008).
Environmental risk factors account for 21% of
the overall burden of disease worldwide, and
more in developing countries. This burden is
felt more amongst the poorest in society especially
those that reside in remote rural areas
or overcrowded urbanised areas as they often
have little financial means to address the environmental
factors that cause ill-health.
Some 1.7 million young children die each year
from diarrhoeal diseases associated with inadequate
water supplies, sanitation and food
hygiene and a further 1.4 million child deaths
from respiratory infections are attributable to
indoor pollution. A report on children’s environmental
health conducted by the WHO Regional
Office for Africa (Figure 3) concluded
that the main environmental health factors
causing morbidity and mortality are related to
inadequate access to safe water supplies, unhygienically
prepared food, inadequate sanitation,
inadequate solid and hazardous waste
management and disposal, inadequate vector
control, inadequate housing/overcrowding,
poor personal hygiene, air pollution, both
within and outside home, exposure to various
non-communicable diseases etc. (WHO 2005;
ARH Report 2006) – all areas which have
been successfully tackled and are properly
regulated by environmental health authorities
in most developed countries. Progress towards
the key Millennium Development
Goals can be accelerated through improved
environmental health conditions, in particular
the MDG’s for child health, access to water
and sanitation and environmental sustainability.
While many other interventions may
also accelerate progress, the multi-sectoral
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