The
negative impacts of urbanization as have been highlighted include:
(1) Increase
in population growth and its resulting problem of overcrowding, unemployment,
crime and possible easy out break of communicable diseases.
(2) Secondly
the challenge of environmental pollution also with its attendant health
hazards.
(3) Thirdly,
is the problem of poor waste disposal and management Equally important to
mention is the problems of slums, unplanned urbanization, destroying of natural
habitat and lack of safe drinking water and sanitation.
The impact of urbanization on parasitic diseases
status is different in developing
countries compared to industrialized countries. In developing countries
population growth, rural
urban migration and poor development of the urban physical environment have facilitated the spread of many parasitic diseases such as malaria, amoebiasis, geohelminthiasis, filariasis etc. The increasing morbidity and mortality from these parasitic diseases, has caused several negative consequences such as decreasing economic productivity, low performance in school and increasing medical costs.
Nigeria as a nation has over the years been experiencing an accelerated shift of her population from rural to urban areas. The rapid rate of urbanization has no doubt engendered several challenges which includes inadequate financial resources, lack of employment opportunities, spreading homelessness and expansion of squatter settlements, increased poverty, growing in security and rising crime rates, inadequate and deteriorating services and infrastructure. Other problems include substandard and inadequate housing, slums transportation problems, low productivity, crime juvenile delinquency, lack of health and educational facilities, rising traffic congestion, increasing population, inadequate water supply and sanitation, uncoordinated urban development and an increasing vulnerability to disaster. All these ugly effects of urbanization need to be mitigated.
urban migration and poor development of the urban physical environment have facilitated the spread of many parasitic diseases such as malaria, amoebiasis, geohelminthiasis, filariasis etc. The increasing morbidity and mortality from these parasitic diseases, has caused several negative consequences such as decreasing economic productivity, low performance in school and increasing medical costs.
Nigeria as a nation has over the years been experiencing an accelerated shift of her population from rural to urban areas. The rapid rate of urbanization has no doubt engendered several challenges which includes inadequate financial resources, lack of employment opportunities, spreading homelessness and expansion of squatter settlements, increased poverty, growing in security and rising crime rates, inadequate and deteriorating services and infrastructure. Other problems include substandard and inadequate housing, slums transportation problems, low productivity, crime juvenile delinquency, lack of health and educational facilities, rising traffic congestion, increasing population, inadequate water supply and sanitation, uncoordinated urban development and an increasing vulnerability to disaster. All these ugly effects of urbanization need to be mitigated.
·
Given the serious
effects that urbanization can have on health it is essential to include health
considerations into policy making because many of the negative effects are
suffered by the poor and minorities. The environmental, social and economic
situation at home is in turn influenced by the general social, economic and
political situation. The rules, regulations and laws governing a particular
city or country will be a reflection of the priority that Government attaches
to providing good services and healthy environment to the population. As
Herbert Girardet, an expert on urban sustainability has stated “if we are to
continue to live in cities, indeed if we are to continue to flourish on this
planet, we will have to find a viable relationship between cities and the
living world, a relationship not parasitic but symbiotic or mutually
supportive” (WHO; 2010)
·
Secondly rural
urban migration should be discouraged through government policies massive
development and provision of infrastructure in the rural places. Opportunities
should be created within rural areas.
·
Adopting positive
lifestyle can equally be a means of mitigating the negative effects of
urbanization as it concerns environmental pollution and sanitation.
·
Careful urban
planning is crucial to restrict household overcrowding and emerging slums,
squatter settlement. Also provision of parks and open places relieve
congestion.
·
Migrants need to
be screened and quarantined for possible harboring of parasitic infection
before admittance into the city.
·
Solutions to the
urban transmission of water-borne diseases include provision of adequate public
services such as safe water supply.
·
Implementation of
either weekly or monthly sanitation, provision of good modern sewerage
equipment and proper drainage system. Adequate waste disposal plans, should
also be put in place.
·
Plans for
parasitic diseases control in urban areas should be included in long term
national strategies after identification of both general and specific control
measures. There should be participation of parapsychologists, epidemiologist
and environmental health personnel.
·
Equally necessary
is the procurement of efficient health services including laboratories capable
of diagnosis and drug supplies for correct treatment.
·
There should be
adequate surveillance and monitoring of data derived from in—patient and
out—patient health services to determine the pattern and distribution of
parasitic diseases.
·
Also vector
control measures should be sustained.