Over the next few days, the Health ministers from Central America and the Dominican Republic will be in Belize for the 21st meeting of RESSCAD. Meetings are being held in the area of food and nutrition, water and sanitation and social security institutes. This year the meetings are being discussed under the theme investing in health within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Jorge Polanco sits in the water and sanitation forum and explains the importance of RESSCAD.
Dr. Jorge Polanco,
"We are discussing an agenda basically on how to improve water. The emphasis is on potable water safety and sanitation in general, which is the management of solid waste and liquid waste. We cannot speak of health if we don't bring water into the picture. The Ministry of Health cannot really produce health, health will come as a result of having a clean environment and having potable water, so thereby the interest and the importance of water. We all know that the coverage has increased significantly over the last eight years, seven to eight years, especially in the urban areas where the coverage is over one hundred percent with potable water. In the rural areas, yes it is less, but there has been some significant achievements over the last three to four years where, I don't have the exact figures, but it is a very significant increase in rural areas that have had rudimentary water systems put in place. That coverage has surpassed seventy percent right now. Something very important is that even though the systems are different, the rudimentary water systems in the rural areas are different compared to an urban setting, the issue of quality is there."
The Ministers of Health of all RESSCAD countries will be meeting tomorrow.
