Risking health?

Peri-urban natural resource development projects can have both positive and negative consequences for residents and workers. There are various possible health risks:

• Diversion of surface waters for irrigation can lead to increased agricultural production but it can also encourage malaria, schistosomiasis and filariasis.
• Poor methods of applying chemicals to crops can cause poisoning. Wastewater can also contain various levels of chemical toxicity: if badly handled or stored, pathogens can be transferred to food products causing diarrhoea, dysentery or intestinal worm infections.
• Cholera is attributed to poor urban agricultural practices.
• Increased use of fast-moving agricultural machinery can result in injury, dust-induced lung diseases and other occupational diseases.
• Livestock are responsible for a range of communicable diseases such as brucellosis, tapeworm infection and salmonellosis.

Better design, operation and management of projects could lead to improved health. Prospective health impact assessments should be included in project design and operation to examine three types of risk:
Community - vulnerability of specific groups to specific hazards.
Environmental - exposure of communities to health hazards.
Institutional - the capacity, capability and jurisdiction of responsible services to protect communities from hazards.

Martin Birley
International Health IMPACT Assessment Consortium
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and University of Liverpool
Quadrangle
Liverpool L69 3GB
UK

T +44 (0) 151 705 3198

M.Birley@liverpool.ac.uk

See also
'The Health Impacts of Peri-Urban Natural Resource Development', by M. H. Birley and K. Lock, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 1999. www.ihia.org.uk

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