Urban health needs ‘intense coordination’, says an ADB adviser

An adviser of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Dhiraj Kumar Nath, has said that urban health is not an issue to be dealt by a single department.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 9 April 2016, 06:53 PM
Updated : 9 April 2016, 07:15 PM

“It’s a multisectoral issue. It needs intense coordination of all,” he said amidst a debate in Bangladesh over who will oversee the primary healthcare of municipalities.

The local government ministry is currently responsible for the primary health. But the health ministry wants to take the charge as there are reports of poor services.

Nath, a former adviser to the caretaker government, said they were planning to make an “operational plan” of the urban health strategy to ensure proper services to the people as the cities are growing fast.

He said 50 percent of the Bangladesh’s population would start living in urban localities by 2039.

The ADB works on urban health strategies for the government.

An NGO Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) hosted the dialogue on Saturday with the support of WaterAid and Municipal Association of Bangladesh.

WaterAid Bangladesh Country Representative Dr Md Khairul Islam said different cities would need different approach to improve urban health.

“People living in the port city of Mongla face acute shortage of drinking water, which is not the case for a municipality of Srimangal,” he said citing an instance.