Suzhou, 29 October: About one billion city dwellers worldwide have been living in slums, accounting for one third of the total urban population in the world, said a World Health Organization (WHO) official Sunday.
There are about three billion people living in cities, but one billion of them live in slums, who are facing health challenges, said Soichiro Lwao, director of the WHO health development (Kobe) center at the Second Conference of the Alliance for Healthy Cities (AFHC).
– Urbanization brings welfare to some people, but the underprivileged groups of urban dwellers have “fallen” (out) from this process, he said at the conference held in Suzhou, east Chinas Jiangsu Province.
The gap between rich and poor is widening among city residents in most countries, and the increasing urban poor are facing worsening health problems, according to Soichiro Lwao.
Air, water and soil pollution, noise and public disorder and traffic congestion in communities of the urban poor, are all threatening the health of them, he said.
Priorities should be given to improve the health conditions of the urban poor, health officials agreed.
With the main theme of “Healthy Cities in the Globalizing World”, the conference on Oct. 28 to 30 had attracted representatives of cities from more than 20 countries and regions, such as Australia, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Initiated by the WHO, the AFHC is an international network aiming at protecting and enhancing the health of city dwellers. More than 500 cities worldwide have been members of the alliance.
Kilder: Xinhua General News Service og The Push Journal
