Public health & water crisis
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 28, 2014 -

Water pumped from dirty ditches sold to public :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

The present water crisis is going to have a severe impact on public health of the State.

There have been reports of some private water carriers selling unhygienic water directly pumped from the dirty ditches to the public.

However, no authority is looking into this serious issue.

In fact, public health is a neglected subject in the State.

No doubt, the State has advanced so well in the field of medical sciences, even capable of providing world-class personal health care services, but the health condition of the general public is still in a deplorable condition resulting from improper maintenance of public health.

Public health has been described as one of the important aspects of the society, which requires overall enhancement of sanitation, hygiene, nutrition, and drinking water facilities.

But such an important issue has been dumped rendering the socio-economic condition of the State in haywire. The failure of state machineries has aggravated the health issues of the state.

The departments which are supposed to maintain proper drainage and sanitary system have failed to accomplish the tasks and even the state health department is unable to provide proper health care services to the people.

The public health of the State is in a sorry state with no proper facility for drinking water, drainage and sanitary system.

The concept of "health for all" seems to be absent in the minds of the people and as a result they consider personal health as only their main concern.

Other than degenerative diseases all other common diseases like malaria, dengue, cholera, Japanese Encephalitis, polio, chicken pox, measles etc. have to be dealt at the community level by organizing sensitization programmes and maintaining clean and hygienic environment.

There can be a strong healthy society only if the public health is strengthened by enhancing the facilities of sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and drinking water.

All of these things require proper planning and policy of the government besides people's active participation.

At the moment, the public health officials should be prepared to tackle the "possible epidemic" of water-borne diseases in the State in the backdrop of this water scarcity.

It has been reported that that the public health expenditure in India has declined from 1.3% of GDP in 1990 to 0.9% of GDP in 1999.

The Union budgetary allocation for health is 1.3% while the State's budgetary allocation is 5.5%.

Also, the Union Government's contribution to public health expenditure is 15% while the State's contribution is about 85%. The vertical health and family welfare programmes have limited synergisation at operational levels.

Lack of community ownership of public health programme has greatly impacted the efficiency and accountability of various health schemes taken up in the country.

In a recent survey of health researchers, it was found out that only 10% Indians have some form of health insurance mostly inadequate.

Hospitalized Indians spend on an average of 58% of their total annual expenditure and over 40% of hospitalized Indians borrow heavily or sell assets to cover health expenses.

It was also observed that over 25% of hospitalized Indians fall below poverty line (BPL).

In view of the above survey reports, the public health needs to be boosted up in both rural and urban areas so as to build a strong and healthy nation.

As for the State, the people should try to get utmost benefits from National Rural Health Mission which aims to provide good health care facilities to the rural population throughout the country with special focus to 18 states including all NE states which are lacking proper health infrastructure.

The public health of the country is likely to be improved with the increase of country's health expenditure from 0.9% of GDP to 2-3% of GDP in the current year.