Sanitation

• The 15-minute city is all about accessibility, time efficiency and expanding options for everyone, not just the most well-off.
• Achieving this goal, and designing healthier spaces, begins with a comprehensive understanding of how urban environments impact our health and well-being — along with a realistic look at the current barriers to healthier urban design.

Designing better spaces

• Neighbourhoods with accessible public and community spaces and social events have been shown to improve mental health, increase happiness, and offer a sense of belonging and community.
• At the same time, readily accessible grocery stores, community gardens and farmers’ markets have been shown to enhance mental, social and physical health.
• This is where urban planning comes in as municipal policy-makers develop and implement policies, which can alter the structure, use and regulations of public spaces in cities.

Day-to-day challenges

• While the importance of physical and mental health was widely acknowledged, a glaring gap exists in the recognition of the social dimension of health.
• Administrative roadblocks, such as a lack of co-ordination between, and within, provincial and municipal governments, can prevent access to crucial data needed for policy making.
• Meanwhile, technical barriers — including the use of jargon and overly-technical language by the academic community — can interfere with the accessibility of academic literature.

• This lack of co-ordination among different branches and divisions within a municipality can result in missed opportunities for collaboration.
• Differences in the use of terminology can exacerbate the problem, causing confusion and impeding cross-sectoral work.
• Conflicts between the objectives of various divisions, such as those between active transportation planners and traffic engineers, underscore the challenges posed by siloed governance.
• 4 – Political ideologies get in the way Beyond bureaucratic challenges, differing political ideologies present a formidable barrier.

Overcoming these barriers

• The journey towards creating healthier and more equitable cities is riddled with challenges.
• From a lack of shared understanding, to inaccessible evidence, fragmented governance and legal limitations of municipalities and differing political ideologies, the barriers are multifaceted.

• Akram Mahani holds funding from SHRF (Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation) and CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research).
• Nazeem Muhajarine receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

• NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Water Mission is partnering with Compassion International on a global safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) alliance through a pilot project initiating in Chimwenje, Malawi.
• The alliance will strive to bring holistic care to children and families experiencing poverty through safe water access.
• “Water Mission’s technical excellence, church engagement strategies, and presence in vulnerable communities makes them a wonderful, strategically aligned partner for Compassion,” said Herb Ehresman, Director of Strategic Alliances at Compassion International.
• “We can reach exponentially more children and families through this partnership than we could on our own.

• This opportunity is highlighted in the white paper "From Ripples to Waves: The Value of Corporate Water Stewardship," which was unveiled yesterday at the GreenBiz 24 conference in Arizona.
• "From Ripples to Waves: The Value of Corporate Water Stewardship" discusses the value of water and serves as a call to action for businesses to address water challenges proactively.
• Delving into the practices of six companies across various sizes and sectors – including PepsiCo, Microsoft, Gotham Greens, Cargill, S&P Global, and Xylem – the white paper provides tangible examples of effective water stewardship.
• Through these examples, the report highlights how the private sector can make a demonstrable contribution to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Clean Water and Sanitation for all.

• GreenPower reported record revenues of $34.2 million for the nine months ended December 31, 2023, an increase of 40% over the revenue of $24.4 million for the comparable period in the previous fiscal year.
• These Nano BEASTs are part of the 41 all-electric GreenPower school buses ordered by the state of West Virginia," said Fraser Atkinson, GreenPower Chairman and CEO.
• Increased cash by $3.4 million to $4.0 million from $0.6 million at the beginning of the fiscal year.
• Deferred revenue of $10.7 million at the end of the quarter including the current portion of $8.2 million.