A healthy environment is essential to the maintenance of good health. Health Minister Hensley Daniel urged Nevisians to work along with the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) as it sought to maintain a healthy environment through its Environmental Works Programme (EWP).
Mr. Daniel said the NIA had recognised the connection between a clean and healthy environment and its links to tourism and general wellbeing which led to the establishment of the EWP.
“It is well established that a clean and healthy environment is central to the maintenance of good health and there is a direct correlation between health and wealth, the healthier the country the wealthier. Individual productivity increases with good health but illness results in loss of productivity and consequently in loss of household income. Ill health predisposes the society to poverty. A healthy and productive workforce is central to continued local and foreign investment in the economy.
Nevis is marketed as an up market tourist destination yet the physical environment has been less than satisfactory, environmental conditions greatly influence visitor choice and Nevis will lose market share and consequently millions of dollars, if it does not move speedily to maintain a healthy environment. This is the basis on which the Environmental Works Programme was established,” he said.
The Health Minister noted that the EWP sent a clear message to the population of Nevis which spoke of the administration’s quest to maintain a clean environment and there were several visible instances throughout Nevis that the programme had been meeting its objectives.
“We are satisfied that by and large communities have been cleaned up and continue to be cleaned up and we want to commend the workers. We ask the community to work along with us, as we seek to maintain a healthy environment through its image and perception of health [which] are central to the promotion of a healthy environment,” he said.
Mr. Daniel said the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) had estimated the loss of millions of dollars by the tourism industry due to the failure of investment in environmental preservation.
However, he said, in Nevis the EWP would become a key component of health care and in time would reduce the cost due to its heavy focus on prevention. He said the move was in line with modern thinking on health care, that any investment in health at the preservation level was an investment in productivity.
Mr Daniel also explained that the image and perception of health services were also central to the promotion of a healthy environment. He said the EWP captured all the activities performed by persons who in the past were employed at the village level to clean drains and roadsides.
Under the programme their duties had been extended to include the maintenance of playgrounds, to monitor litter and garbage and the beautification of the various communities.
