{"id":56912,"date":"2016-07-24T13:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T20:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=56912"},"modified":"2016-07-24T13:00:23","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T20:00:23","slug":"letter-to-the-editordengue-control-program%e2%80%8b-utter-waste-of-money-and-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/07\/24\/letter-to-the-editordengue-control-program%e2%80%8b-utter-waste-of-money-and-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the editor:Dengue control program\u200b – Utter waste of money and Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The anti mosquito campaign is a failure is a foregone conclusion, proved not only by the ever increasing number of cases of Dengue\u00a0\u200bin spite of millions being spent on this program by the government\u00a0but also by\u00a0the way the government officials go about taking action\u00a0in fits and starts.<\/p>\n

Once in a blue moon, suddenly there will be a flurry of activity from the officials and every house in a particular area will be visited and those who had even a coconut shell with stagnant water will be hauled up in the courts to pay heavy fines \u2013 fair enough. But the mosquitoes must be having a hearty laugh since the very drains just outside these same \u00a0houses \u00a0will be full of muck and stagnant pools of water.<\/p>\n

\u200bTrue the dengue mosquitoes breed in clean water – thank God for that – and do not breed in the drains since they are not clean and often running water may wash away the mosquitoes eggs. But a dirty drain smells horrible and breeds many other germs. And\u00a0 the efforts of the municipality officers is\u00a0 half baked, half hearted and lack total commitment. It must be towards a totally clean environment as a whole.<\/p>\n

Speaking to an officer I pointed out that their actions are half hearted and not committed to cleanliness as a whole and what he said summed it all. He said, “Eva Apey wada novey!” – that is not our job – meaning my job is only to catch as many as possible culprits. If I don’t educate them, I’ll\u00a0catch \u00a0even more next time!<\/p>\n

If the officers who visit are more concerned about\u00a0\u200bcleanliness in the lanes and \u200babout\u00a0actually eradicating mosquitoes\u00a0\u200btheir attitudes will be totally different. Instead of\u00a0just \u00a0gleefully issuing \u00a0warrants to the house holders, feeling grand that they \u2018caught\u2019 so many errant house holders, they would have \u00a0taken\u00a0 a holistic approach.<\/p>\n

They would have \u00a0first made sure \u00a0the drains are clean for that\u2019s where most mosquitoes breed,\u00a0\u200bbut even more importantly\u00a0they would have taken time to explain to the inmates of the houses the importance of keeping the surrounding clean and would have visited on a regular basis to\u00a0 make sure \u00a0their\u00a0\u200binstructions\u00a0are carried out.<\/p>\n

\u200bI know of householders who clean the premises only when they hear the health inspectors are in the\u00a0 area \u200band if they don’t visit the houses they express a sigh of relief and leave everything as it is.\u00a0In fact, \u00a0if the knowledge is given properly then the householders will actually invite the inspectors in and ask them to check out the premises for often we fail to see mosquito breeding areas\u00a0in our own premises.<\/p>\n

Now and then the Municipality wakes up to the fact that the \u00a0drains in the lanes need cleaning then there is a flurry of activity, a whole battalion of labourers and supervisors will land on the lane, removing \u00a0overgrown weeds and the garbage obstructing\u00a0 the flow of water in the drains. For a full day there will be activity and then, all what they removed \u00a0will be dumped in heaps right along \u00a0the curbs and they will disappear.<\/p>\n

When questioned they will assure that these will be removed during the course of the day, but alas! The heaps \u00a0will \u00a0remain for days to come,\u00a0\u200binconveniencing the pedestrians and the motorists, \u200bslowly being kicked back into the drains by the vehicles, the pedestrians and the rain. The drains will be blocked even worse than before and we can rest assured the municipality workers will not be sighted for at least another 3 months! Just visit\u00a0\u200bany lane which are being cleaned by the laborers\u00a0the day after\u00a0for proof.<\/p>\n

\u200bWhat an utter waste of man power and labour! \u200b<\/p>\n

There is no planning, no coordination between the labourers and those in charge of the municipality \u00a0vehicle\u200bs\u200b, and no consistency in the project. Everybody \u2013 the laborers, the officers, the supervisors and the municipality councilors \u2013 all feel smug that they have done their part. But then the mosquitoes are singing their way to their victims, \u00a0now that they have even better breeding places.<\/p>\n

Will there ever be a consistent plan to carry out such a simple project?\u00a0 Why cannot the municipality allocate a few officers\u200b, or even volunteers \u200bfor a few lanes specifically, and first of all, educate THEM\u00a0 and instruct them to visit the household owners regularly on a friendly basis?\u00a0 The eradication can never be achieved without the willing cooperation of the public. Cleaning the premises, including the drains, fumigation, proper \u00a0garbage disposal \u2013 all have to go hand in hand, and continuously supervised and carried out\u00a0 to eradicate mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

\u200bOnly when the\u00a0housewives \u00a0in the area are convinced that it is for their own good – for their own kith and kin – that they must be vigilant against mosquitoes that the eradication will be successful.<\/p>\n

Until then,Party time for \u00a0the mosquitoes and Goodbye to the eradication.<\/p>\n

Sent by :<\/p>\n

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, The anti mosquito campaign is a failure is a foregone conclusion, proved not only by the ever increasing number of cases of Dengue\u00a0\u200bin spite of millions being spent on this program by the government\u00a0but also by\u00a0the way the government officials go about taking action\u00a0in fits and starts. Once in a blue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}