South Africa | Sebokeng Hospital celebrates World Environment Day

Source: Department of Waste and Sanitation, Republic of South Africa

The Gauteng Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), the Department of Health in collaboration with the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) celebrated World Environment Day by greening the Sebokeng Hospital on Thursday, 27 June 2019.

The event was aimed at promoting a clean environment and making the hospital a place of health, healing and tranquillity.

Over a number of the months, stakeholders have made efforts to green the immediate vicinity of the hospital, making it a place for the staff and patients to enjoy. The emphasis on greening of the hospital has been necessitated by neglect of spaces that should otherwise be free from waste and pollution and thus promoting healthy living.

The Greening of the Sebokeng Hospital will to promote sustainable use of water and waste management as a way of ensuring that the hospital embraces a better way of doing its business.

Ms Ayanda Sibisi, who is the hospital’s Chief Environmental Practitioner, said the celebration was also used as a means to educate the public about keeping their environment free from pollution and to plant trees in the area to encourage the greening of the environment.

“As part of the celebration we launched an internal GGHH Committee, the ATMOS air quality monitoring device, planting tree and flowers in the hospital,” Ms Sibisi said.

DWS’s Chief Development Expert, Ms Lungile Zulu, sad the mismanagement of waste and pollution of water resources have become the single biggest challenge in the country, singling out the pollution of scarce water resources as an act that would have a negative impact on people’s health.

Ms Zulu said the launch of the hospital in celebrating World Environment Day was of critical importance as the environment of the hospitals was key to treating patients.

She said: “Hospitals are places where ill people expect to get well and naturally the immediate environment of the hospital must send a message about this imperative. Surely we cannot expect patients to have confidence in the kind services that receive from hospitals if the environment is bad.”