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Roads to prosperity

No country can hope to progress without a good network of roads. They are essential for the transport of goods and people in an efficient manner. A well-maintained, modern road network is the lifeline of any nation. Developed countries have excellent roads that make travelling from one part of the country to another a breeze.

Sri Lanka aspires to become an Asian economic powerhouse, but its roads tell a different story. Most roads, even the so-called A Grade ones, are in a poor condition. They simply cannot cope with the increased flow of traffic. There are no expressways.

Only a couple of flyovers exist. The division of responsibility for road maintenance among the Road Development Authority, provincial councils and local bodies does not help, either.

These are among the many challenges that the newly appointed Prime Minister and Highways Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and Transport Minister Felix Perera have to face in the years ahead. There should be close cooperation between the two ministries and institutions under their purview, as the two subjects are inextricably linked.

It is true that budgetary constraints have hampered road development. This is why foreign assistance is deemed essential for this sector. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in a sign of its confidence in the development initiatives of the new Government, on Thursday granted US$ 15 million (approx Rs.1500 million) "to overhaul the country's deteriorating road network".

The ADB said the funds would help the Government efficiently manage the early stages of road projects to avoid delays in implementation. The loan will encourage timely pre-construction programmes without waiting for funding from external sources, it added.

As the ADB points out, many development projects take ages to get off the ground thanks to a raft of feasibility, environmental and resettlement studies. They are by no means unnecessary, but inordinate delays can push back a given project by several years.

The ready availability of funds for initial work and feasibility studies helps accelerate development projects such as expressways.

A lot has been written about expressways for the past few years, but only one (Colombo-Matara) is under construction. The rest are still on the drawing board for whatever reasons. The new Ministers must accelerate the construction of expressways to Kandy and to the Bandaranaike International Airport.

We must bear in mind that local and foreign investors will not start projects, say, in Matara if transport takes five hours between points. Moreover, good roads and expressways will encourage people to live away from the City - Colombo will be more or less a one hour commute for someone living 110 Km away if there is an expressway.

However, it would be imprudent to concentrate only on trunk roads and expressways.

Rural roads are often neglected in mega-development scenarios at the expense of village dwellers. Most rural roads are in a deplorable condition. Some villages have no roads to speak of, only barely motorable gravel paths. Urgent attention should thus be paid to the development of rural roads. All this calls for a comprehensive national road development policy that should be formulated with the future in mind.

Heart to Heart

Heart attacks are a silent killer. They are already the number one killer in the developed world. More and more people in developing countries, including Sri Lanka, are dying of heart attacks.

Advances in medicine and surgery have enabled more people with heart diseases, even those who have had one or two attacks, to lead normal lives. Early diagnosis of heart conditions, constant medical care and if necessary, surgical intervention, can make a huge difference.

Doctors and heart patients themselves have always known that heart disease is not entirely physiological. Many psychological factors do influence our well-being. Depression, stress, anxiety and similar mental states affect the heart in more ways than one. Heart patients with a positive outlook on life do have the potential to outlive those who are resigned to their fate.

We pen these lines in the context of a study published last week in Heart, a journal of the British Medical Association. It found that heart attack survivors with a close friend, relative, spouse/lover to confide in are half as likely to suffer further attacks within a year as patients without a shoulder to cry on.

The study tracked more than 600 patients for a year after they had a heart attack.

"Patients with a close confidante had only half the risk of a further cardiac event than those without a confidante," Heart concluded, in typical technical jargon. The finding held even when adjustments were made for other heart disease risk factors. The lesson is clear: If you have good friends or relatives, do not write them off - they could save your life one day.

Heart discovered that those without a close relationship were more likely to drink and smoke heavily, against their doctor's advice. Scientists still do not know precisely why having a confidante keeps a second heart attack at bay, but one plausible explanation is that a close friend may make sure a patient seeks early treatment and sticks to it.

Patients and their carers must take this advice to heart. As this study shows, professional medical care may not be enough for a heart patient. A professional nurse can never really come close to a good friend or relative in terms of affection and sympathy.

Heart patients need someone they trust to comfort them and guide them. The psychological boost thus gained may help add years to their lives and life to their years.

www.Pathmaconstruction.com

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