Once again on Dengue

Yesterday the media carried the alarming news that 75 percent of Colombo city children have been infected with Dengue. This is an issue one cannot be complacent about.

The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry has warned the public to be vigilant since the incidence of the disease could increase with the rains. Already the disease has affected over 30,000 persons of which 280 died during the year 2009.

Besides Colombo high incidence of the disease was reported from Kandy, Tangalle and several other outstation towns.

This calls for regular, round the year public awareness and environment cleansing campaigns. The local government authorities have a very great responsibility in this regard as they are the arms of the government at grass roots level. It does not, however, absolve the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry of its responsibility in containing and eliminating the disease.

What has been observed throughout the past and even this year is the continued apathy of the authorities at all levels and the indifference of the public. No country has successfully combated the Dengue epidemic without mass public participation.

The complacency shown by all in this respect is partly due to the traditional indifference shown by the people to keep a clean environment and partly by the premature boastings of the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry in claiming that the situation is under control.

As pointed out the breakdown of the solid waste disposal facilities in urban areas have aggravated the problem. Solid waste management should get top priority for otherwise several other health hazards besides dengue would arise. Already leptospirosis is spreading in many areas due to the prevalence of the rat population.

Even when there are funds and the will to act on the part of the authorities, bureaucratic lethargy and procrastination delays delivery in time which escalates the dangers. Take for example the decision to introduce the Cuban BTI as a means of containing the disease or to minimize the high density of the disease carrying vector. More than three months have elapsed. There is no sense of urgency. It is not enough to quote statistics and compare them with the situation in other countries. While all that may be good for improving the general knowledge what requires attention is action. It is also necessary to encourage and assist the production of BTI locally as a long-term solution.

As pointed out in this column earlier what is required is a holistic approach to the eradication of the disease-carrying vectors with the use of all available and sustainable means with mass support from the public.

Human smuggling

The Sri Lanka Navy in an operation with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Air Force and the Sri Lanka Police have thwarted an attempt to smuggle over 100 persons to a destination South East, probably somewhere in Australia or New Zealand.

Such human trafficking has been going on for some time. Of course, there is also another direction to the trafficking. It was smuggling persons to Europe via Egypt or Lebanon. At times publicity given abroad to attempts by these hapless persons to endure untold hardships on way, e.g., travelling inside containers or in hidden compartments of vessels in crossing borders overland sullied the good name of the country. Attempts were made to give a political colouring to these attempts, mostly undertaken due to economic reasons. Coming from the low income strata of society who find it difficult to make ends meet with every passing day they become gullible victims of human trafficking agents in the hope of finding a way out of their sad plight.

Very often they are also unaware of the risks involved in crossing oceans in overloaded small vessels unsuitable for long voyages.

It is necessary to arrest the kingpins involved in the human trafficking and put a stop to this ignoble practice.

As the recent incident involving those Sri Lankans who left the shores of Indonesia looking for asylum in Australia, after having been in the former country for some time such human trafficking could strain relations between countries too.

The government should seek ways and means of preventing Sri Lankans falling prey to such human traffickers with the assistance of the international community. It would be best to open legal means of migrating to foreign lands for employment as well as develop the skills of the would-be emigrants, so that they could explore legal avenues of employment abroad.