Distracted by impending constitutional reforms, UN panels, skyrocketing cost-of-living issues, 'death fasts' and test matches, a silent killer in the form of the dengue fever lurks in every province in the country.
The death toll stands at 164 for this year alone with a sudden surge in recent weeks following the rains. Some 22,000 (and counting) people are known to have been hospitalised throughout the country and a countless number are receiving ayurvedic or other medical attention.
Over the years, there has been a general apathy setting in; long blamed on the North East insurgency which covered a lot of sins of successive governments in office.
The drive against dengue once seen among Public Health Inspectors has withered away. The lack of doctors, hundreds upon hundreds of unauthorized constructions straining a city's drainage and sewage systems, MPs and local councillors pressuring honest officials to issue certificates of conformity for these buildings, and errant officials taking bribes not to prosecute those breaking laws, and on the other hand vast expanses of space in schools, places of worship, mushrooming hospitals and government complexes like ministries, court houses etc., have all taken their toll on the people.
While there is no question that much of the responsibility rests on the people themselves in heavily congested areas and open uninhabited places - two extremes as they are - dengue - and its cousins including chikungunya etc have become high risk problems. In Colombo, rate-payers subscribe to a staggering Rs. 1 billion bill a year on solid waste management (another term for garbage disposal). The entire contract is privatized and the kickbacks stink as much as the mounting permanent dump at Bloemendhal Road.
There are reports that in some desperate bid to break away from this form of corruption, the authorities are studying the Madurai Municipal Corporation model in India where the private sector is invited to handle the work of the local council. It is the case in many economically developed countries. But if there are no mechanisms to tackle the corrupt nexus between the authorities and the private sector, it will be the same difference.
In the on-going discussions between the Government and the Opposition on constitutional reforms, the nagging question seems to be whether they should go back to the old ward system, retain the current proportional representation system, or have a mixed system. There are even discussions whether to double the number of councillors - as if this is the panacea for what is wrong with the local councils and their inability to serve even the basic needs of the public.
Take the country's largest council - the Colombo Municipal Council. Despite having a Mayor and councillors elected, it was in such disarray that the Government was forced to appoint a special commissioner - a one-man show. Whether for political reasons, or otherwise, when things go wrong, reverting to this one-man show has been the answer. So then, do local councils as they are constituted today work?
The CMC is reportedly short of 500 inspectors and doctors in its designated cadre to serve Colombo's burgeoning population. Its officials are spending their time attending meetings of the Presidential Task Force, the Chief Minister, the Governor, the District Secretary, all calling for reports while the war against the mosquito rages. Now, they are short of time. The Minister of Health has called for a Dengue Awareness Week in a month's time; by which time the rains are expected to subside and the number of dengue cases too would subside in the natural course of events. Dengue Awareness Weeks should be arranged before the rains come - not when they are subsiding.
In what seem to be desperate moves, soldiers and police officers are being deployed to clean blocked drains, cluttered gutters and even pools of stagnant water. Unless this is done with some concerted plan, the time and effort might be not well spent.
In the case of the Tsunami, the lessons learnt from that horrific tragedy seem to be paying some dividend. A Disaster Management Centre was set up, and people are being made aware of what to do to save themselves with early warning systems slowly coming into place. While to some extent one could excuse the tsunami for taking the nation by surprise, dengue is a recurring phenomenon and that's probably why it has almost been taken for granted; yes, the rains will come and dengue with it seems to be like a karmic cycle of events that the people must endure.
Today's mosquito is a cunning one that knows where to hide and when to come out. The fog/spray/kill approach is meeting resistance and the virus has become more virulent. In countries like Singapore where dengue was once rampant, innovative approaches like the ban on gutters is being considered, allowing the rain water to splash despite the inconvenience.
People engaged in the battle against the dengue scourge complain that the attitudes and ethos of people also must change; that throwing one's garbage over the fence will not stop the spread of dengue; that civic mindedness and cleanliness is next to godliness. The CMC this week wrote to one hundred private sector companies asking them to join in the 'war against dengue' by having their staff see that their neighbourhood was 'dengue free'; only seven responded. That in itself is a terrible indictment on society's attitude to the problem at hand.
The best preventive measures still would be by taking punitive action against offenders - not so much the ordinary public, but those corrupt MPs, councillors and errant officials. Some custodial punishment for at least some of them would send the best signal home.
As we are engulfed by the dengue outbreak, there is little to do right now other than to contain the situation for the moment, and then, not go to hibernation, but be ready with a concerted plan, galvanizing all sectors of the populace to prevent the next inevitable outbreak.
The best times for this would be around November this year before the North East monsoon hits that part of the island, and April next year around the Avurudhu (National New Year) time (when in any case people like to spruce up their homes) when the South West monsoon hits these parts of the country, so that when the rains do eventually come, there is less in store to handle; and the problem does not overwhelm us as it does now. |
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