The Kinkaid School World Health Organization

People s Republic of China

Topic 1: Child Health and Malnutrition Approximately ten years ago, the Chinese government made it their goal to half the rate of child malnutrition. The percentage of malnourished children in the country was an average of 19.1% (Chang, NCBI)1. According to a poll taken in 2009, the percentage of malnourished children in China is now only 7% (Sengupta, NY Times)2. This decline is a direct result of many of China s characteristics. China has rapid agricultural and economic growth, resulting in effective food availability in response to the demand. This food demand is kept in control by Chinese population control, preventing a growth in population rates. Other contributions to the decline of child malnutrition are steady investments to education, female life expectancy (contributing to the quality of life for females), and a healthy environment (ex. access to clean water). Each of these three factors would contribute a third to the decline in child malnutrition. Better policies and more investments will lead to substantially better nutrition for children worldwide. Not doing anything about it, however, can lead to even worse situations than before. (Rosegrant and Meijer, Journal of Nutrition.)3 Topic 2: Improving Sanitation and Clean Water to Prevent Diseases China has dramatically attempted to change the their program on improving water sanitation. In the year 2008, the WHO confirmed that about 100 million Chinese people didn t have access to an improved water source. 4These water projects as well as those of the past have given insufficient attention to the longterm results needed to sufficiently improve water standards. However, improving water conditions has also been hindered by the constant use of water polluted by arsenic. Along with arsenic poisoning, 26 million people in China suffer from dental fluorosis while groundwater levels have been dropping and sources of clean water are becoming seriously depleted. 5 Currently the national government lacks a single policy document for water supply and sanitation and currently works under the two laws on pollution prevention and control from 1984 and 2002.6 Northern China is now relying on 10,000 year old reserves of water to meet the demands of China s large population.7 In fact, in Northern China, 70% of the three major rivers are too polluted for human use. The depletion in sources of clean water is also blamed on the lack of regulation in water distribution till now. Prices and management on water were not common, and the new system regulates overconsumption. The new five-year plan in action has high goals, but it also has the means and motivation to make a change, though without immediate action, it may be too late.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8886327 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/asia/13malnutrition.html 3 http://jn.nutrition.org/content/132/11/3437S.full 4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_People's_Repub lic_of_China 5 http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/factsfigures04/en/ 6 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2011-03/30/content_12250797.htm 7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_water_crisis

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