Córdoba Chooses Water

The communications initiative is part of a broader project aimed at passing a policy to establish a “healthy school food environment” and is supported by the Partnership for Healthy Cities Policy Accelerator. The Accelerator helps cities establish the technical foundations and political strategies needed to create and implement local health policies that prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries.

According to Argentina’s national nutrition and health survey, 40 per cent of school-age children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Nearly half of the country’s schoolchildren consume sugary drinks at least twice a day, a major risk factor for NCDs such as diabetes and cancer.

In an op-ed for The Financial Times, former Córdoba Intendant Martín Llaryora wrote that, as part of the project, the city is developing guidelines that would, for the first time, allow local government to remove sugary beverages and other harmful products from school environments. The policy would also ban school promotion of junk food and sugary beverages. Final approval from legislators is expected in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the city has installed water fountains in schools throughout the city and is running “Córdoba Choose Water” videos on television (see below), among other citywide messaging.