Good health is the foundation of real wealth

There are 44.3 million people in Kenya today. Back in 1963 at independence, Kenya’s population stood at 8.9 million people. This means that in just over 50 years, our population has grown more than four times over.

Our natural resources have however not grown four-fold in the same period. If anything, we have less robust rivers, diminishing forest covers, underperforming farmlands and many more troubled natural resources. Apart from affecting our economy, this sorry state of the environment has also affected our health drastically.

So important is the link between environment and health that UNEP’s last report on the outlook of Africa’s environment focused exclusively on the relationship between health and environment.

The report highlighted key areas like indoor and outdoor pollution, unhygienic or unsafe food, improper waste disposal and exposure to chemicals. Fatal diseases like cholera mostly stem from some of these health hazards. In fact, the report revealed that ‘about ten percent of the disease burden in Africa is attributable to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, with children bearing most of it.’

Such reports are scientific mirrors of the goings-on in the society. You just have to simply take a look at our society to appreciate the gravity of our environmental related illness. These illnesses can however be countered through dynamic ecological infrastructure.
In this regard, nurturing forests that act as water catchments should not be undermined through deplorable sanitation and infrastructure. Why should the water that an innocent child in Nairobi or elsewhere drinks be polluted yet it was pure when it departed from a given water tower?

In the same vein, behavioural diseases like cancer and diabetes continue to claim and disrupt thousands of lives. Although they are sometimes genetic, they also result from over-indulgence, inactivity and wrong food choices. Our parents and grandparent’s generation have a lot to teach us. They ate much more natural food than us and were also more physically active. Although life expectancy in Kenya today is higher than it was fifty years ago, this is largely a result of better curative measures. Living more harmoniously with the environment, in line with sustainable principles will help us to increasingly tackle disease at the preventive phase.

Health is the foundation of wealth, for without it, we can do nothing. Interestingly, dozens of powerful business opportunities exist within this mindset – organic farming and restaurants, clean cookstoves, green lifestyle coaching and many more. Such is the mindset that has turned the fitness industry into be a multi-trillion shilling industry globally.

Indeed, we shouldn’t generate wealth at all costs then use it to purchase health. Rather we should live healthy at all costs then anchor our livelihoods on a healthy foundation. The environment is a strong ally in this quest. Think green, act Green!