In a national moment that carries a health, human rights and security messages between it, Bahrain announced the fulfillment of the northern and Muharraq provinces for the standards of the World Health Organization to adopt “health cities”, according to accurate field assessments conducted in November 2024 for the northern and February 2025 for Muharraq, an achievement that establishes the Kingdom’s position on the global sustainable development map, and reflects the state’s philosophy that the right to a healthy environment is an incomplete part It is divided from basic human rights, and that the quality of life is not a luxury, but a national and moral commitment to both the citizen and the resident.
This dependence was not a coincidence, but rather the fruit of a systematic work based on 80 international standards that included health, environmental, economic and social dimensions, from organizing society and packing it for health and development, to ensuring water and food safety, developing emergency preparation plans, through education and health education, and ending with the consolidation of partnerships between various sectors. These criteria, when applied on the ground, mean that the Bahraini citizen in the northern or Muharraq wakes up and lives and sleeps in a safe environment, where the air is purer, the water is the most insignificant, and health services are more efficient, and that urban development is subject to the balance of health and well -being, not just because of urban expansion.
But the value of this achievement lies in its strategic dimensions, as the project was not managed from a purely healthy perspective, but rather through an integrative system that brought together service and security institutions, to become a unique model in the interaction of the Ministry of Interior with the Ministry of Health, in a partnership that confirms that security is not limited to combating crime or protecting borders, but extends to include protecting community health and ensuring a sound environment for future generations. A health security perspective here is an extension of national security, which was expressed by the first team, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, in his appreciation for the efforts of the two governorates and the Ministry of Health, and directed it to the southern province to follow the footsteps of this experience, leading to the announcement of all governorates of Bahrain, health cities.
What Bahrain achieves today in this field puts it in the ranks of countries that do not wait for them to impose environmental and health challenges, emergency procedures, but rather to formulate a preventive and proactive model that protects its citizens, and enhances its international image as a responsible country, which is launched in its renaissance from a balanced vision between economic development and human health and its rights. Services, but rather elaborate steps in a comprehensive strategy for the manufacture of cities that respect human beings, and give him the safe area to live and create, in a way that achieves the purposes of sustainable development that Bahrain adhered to before the international community.
At the local level, this achievement sends a clear message to the rest of the provinces: The path of health accreditation is not exclusive to a geographical location or population density, but rather an administrative and executive approach that can achieve a qualitative shift in the quality of life whenever the political will is combined with institutional and societal work, and at the international level, dependence on the balance of Bahrain in the international organizations, and confirms its presence as a country that deals with public health as mainly For social peace, a pillar of confidence between the citizen and his institutions, and an indication that real development begins with man and ends with him.
What was achieved in the northern and burning today, if it is completed in the same spirit in the rest of the provinces, will make Bahrain an inspiring Arab model in formulating a healthy and safe urban environment, where security and health efforts intersect in serving one goal: preserving life, protecting the right to live in dignity, and consolidating the image of a homeland that knows that the future strength is based on the safety and environment of man On paper, but a new national contract between the state and society, its title: The health of the citizen is the security of the homeland.
* Media and academic researcher
