RAWALPINDI, Nov 30: The World Health Organization (WHO) has in principle agreed to make Rawalpindi a partner city, and will fund health projects and schemes aimed at improving the delivery of health care system in the district.

This was stated by District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani on his arrival from Kobe, Japan, where he had gone to attend a three-day consultative conference on city health planning and delivery systems.

The conference was attended by mayors from China, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Brazil, Pakistan and Japan. Other partner cities of WHO are Shanghai, Bangkok and London. Mr Kiani said as a recognition of the efforts of the district government for improving health delivery system, he was elected as the co-chairperson of the conference.

He said the conference laid the stress on the point that health must not be taken purely from preventive or curative perspectives only, rather factors like environment, sewerage, water supply, agriculture and traffic management should be given due consideration as well.

The WHO, he said, further agreed to conduct a research on the quality of water in Rawalpindi city and suggested remedial measures to improve its quality.

The district government will now forward the formal proposal, besides identifying the research institute for the study.

Talking about urban slums that constitute 24 per cent of the population of the district, the Nazim said the WHO agreed to help the district government in improving the health delivery, and air and water pollution control, in these localities.