Ceylon Today Editorial

THEY FIRST KILL MADIWELA MOSQUITOES...

Friday 30th October 2015

 
Members of Parliament occupying the MPs quarters at Madiwela, Battaramulla have panicked as the deadly dengue mosquito had started to attack them. Already Parliamentarian Ranjith Soyza's wife and child, Mahindananda Aluthgamage's sister, 10 Special Task Force personnel and several relatives of legislators occupying the housing complex are victims to the dengue mosquito. This is the first time that dengue mosquitoes have chosen to attack the legislators and kith and kin in the country in an unprecedented manner.

Parliamentarian Soyza claims that there are numbers of mosquito breeding spots in the premises and he had brought it to the notice of the maintenance division at the complex. As it happens to ordinary citizens by the lethargy of the local authorities, Soyza's complaint too has fallen on deaf ears. Soyza had finally brought it to the notice of Speaker Karu Jayasuriya yesterday (28). The MP says the waste at the complex is not disposed properly and puddles of muddy water provide mosquito breeding places.

If the housing complex of parliamentarians is in that pathetic state, one could imagine the situation countrywide during this season in which rains are experienced. The media has been highlighting cases of dengue regularly whenever there is an outbreak of the epidemic. The worst hit districts are Colombo, Kalutara and Gampaha. We have repeatedly pointed out that the most unclean premises are schools, hospitals and congested slum areas in the Colombo city. The previous Government, of course conducted national programmes to combat the dengue fever menace when President Maithripala Sirisena was the Health Minister.

Then the Health Ministry worked closely with the Urban Development Authority (UDA) spearheaded by the former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who engaged service personnel to assist in the eradication of mosquito breeding places.

Health and Local Bodies are fully aware of the dengue fever threat that looms large when the rainy season begins. And all high officials of these two sectors live in urban based areas. However, they do not plan out strategies to combat the menace. The situation clearly requires careful monitoring. Then there would be no need to panic if the authorities are ready to respond. The dengue mosquito is deadly as it carries the virus within a small radius of 50 metres. It poses a grave danger indoors be it home or office. Hence, a dengue mosquito which sucks blood from one person could infect another person within that radius. That is how two or three members in a family fall victim to dengue fever.

Over the years it was the ordinary citizens who were victims on an annual basis to dengue fever. This year among the victims are parliamentarians and their kith and kin. Following the Mawbima/Ceylon Today disclosure of the news that dengue mosquitoes attack MPs in our issues yesterday, MP Ranjith Soyza disclosed that health officials and groups of ministers visited the Madiwela MPs Housing Complex yesterday and assured that the complex would be fully cleansed by this morning and teams would be deployed to detect mosquito larvae at the complex. Parliamentarians covered by privilege are a privileged lot. When the dengue mosquito attacks them, eradication plans start promptly.

The ministers who visited the Madiwela Complex should also visit the Colombo National Hospital premises and schools in Colombo. At the Colombo National Hospital, mosquito breeding places are aplenty. Schools are no better. Over the past five years, the country lost many promising students who contracted the deadly fever being bitten by dengue mosquitoes during school hours. They belonged to both urban and rural schools. Explosive population growth in urban and town areas has set the stage for the rapid spread of dengue fever, while local authorities turn a blind eye. The public have a right to question the government's ability to muster and execute strategies and build an all-round, multidimensional and multilevel system for epidemic crisis management. There cannot be different approaches to combat the menace of dengue spread. Parliamentarians are not an exclusive breed of human beings in this country for them to be given priority in the programme to combat mosquito breeding places. The need is a National Programme to eradicate the dangers of the dengue menace.

Daily Mirror Editorial

Organic farming to save mother earth 

Sri Lanka yesterday began November on a healthy note with the long delayed imposition of a blanket ban on the import, sale or use here of the herbicide Glyphosate which, according to many environmental scientists, contains toxic substances that could lead to the poisoning of mother earth.
According to a Gazette notification issued over the weekend the import and sale of this herbicide has been banned, but the government has not ordered importing companies to send back the huge stocks already imported.

Pesticides Registrar G.A.W. Wijesekara issued the Gazette notification revoking the licenses issued for the import of this pesticide, meaning that the licenses for sale or the possession of this herbicide are now revoked.

Dr. Wijesekara said the importing companies had been informed about the ban, but were not given any deadline to send the stocks back. The herbicide cannot be destroyed in Sri Lanka because of its toxic effects.
According to a Customs Spokesman, the department had released 13 containers of this herbicide before President Maithripala Sirisena announced the ban on May 22.

The spokesman said the Customs had no authority to order the importing companies to send back the stocks.

That was the responsibility of the Pesticide Registrar’s Office which must take action to ensure the stocks are sent back, the spokesman said.

He said the Customs was ready to facilitate the process of sending back the huge stocks of this herbicide but the order must be given by the Registrar of Pesticides. This appears to be something like the traditional blame game or buck passing.

If this toxic herbicide is poisoning our earth and ground water then we urge President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to act effectively and ensure that the ban means a ban.
Most environmentalists are also of this view. Environmental Conservation Trust Director Sajeewa Chamikara said the huge stocks of this herbicide were still available in Sri Lanka and the government must ensure they were sent back. Jathika Hela Urumaya’s outspoken Parliamentarian Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera-who is playing a major role in social justice issues—insisted the stocks of this herbicide should not be kept in the country and he would closely monitor the issue.

Last month President Sirisena announced the government would be launching a massive agriculture mission from January with the vision and goal of growing all the nutritious food we need in our own country. He believes that in addition to getting a healthy nutritious diet of vegetables, fruits and grains grown in our country, Sri Lanka would be able to save hundreds of millions of dollars we are busting up now on the import of unhealthy junk foods.

Also entering the scene actively is Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. On Thursday the Premier will present to Parliament a short-term but sustainable economic development plan focusing mostly on rural areas and giving priority to eco-friendly factors.

One of these measures, significantly, relates to the import of chemical fertilizers, weedicides and pesticides. Mr. Wickremesinghe is expected to announce that the fertiliser subsidy would be withdrawn and instead the farmers would be given money to buy hopefully natural fertilisers for organic farming, which will not pollute mother earth.

The farmers would need to be educated on this and shown that though organic farming may be more difficult initially, it is the best way in the long-term.

Programmes that are gender-sensitive, reduce women’s time constraints and strengthen their control over income enhance maternal and child welfare.

This is especially important because maternal and child malnutrition perpetuate poverty from generation to generation.

The government in its national food production mission also needs to be more gender sensitive and give a bigger role to women in agriculture because women are generally known to be much more resourceful and committed than men. They turn blood into milk. Now let a thousand plants bloom from our mothers to save Mother Nature.