Despite considerable progress in thearea of environmental management over the last decade,Colombia still faces significant impacts from populationexposure to urban air pollution, inadequate access to watersupply and sanitation, and indoor air pollution from solidfuel use. This study estimates that the total health costattributable to these three factors amounts to about 10.2trillion Colombian Pesos (COP) annually, or about 2 percentof GDP in 2010. In terms of mortality, about 7,600 annualpremature deaths can be attributed to these environmentalfactors. This study updates some of the estimates ofenvironmental health costs reported in the 2005 ColombiaCountry Environmental Analysisenvironmental priorities andpoverty reduction . Specific policy recommendations andtargeted interventions can be derived from future analysisof environmental health costs at subnational level,cost-benefit analysis of specific policy interventions, andan analysis of the burden of health costs disaggregated bypopulation groups and poverty levels. Disaggregatedstatistics on health outcomes, fuel use, and access toinfrastructure services, epidemiological studies, and airquality models (urban and industrial areas) are required forsuch analysis. Disaggregated assessments and cost benefitanalysis, recommended for future studies, will facilitate anevaluation of policy and investment outcomes in terms oftheir impacts on the most vulnerable groups and the extentto which they are well targeted and benefit the poor.
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