Dengue eradication drive:

CMC invites cooperation of school principals

Lakshmi DE SILVA

In the effort to prevent infectious or vectorborne diseases like dengue, public awareness and consciousness of preventing mosquito breeding in the environment around homes and schools is vital.

The spread of such diseases is caused by the carelessness of certain sections of society, but all should get together to eradicate the menace, Colombo Municipal Council Competent Authority Omar Kamil said yesterday. He was addressing school principals of the Colombo city at the New Town Hall Auditorium. Though the Colombo Municipal Council had invited around 140 school principals of the city a number less than that was present at the meeting.

We do not know what the October, November rains would bring us.

Only thing we know is that mosquitoes will start breeding when rain starts and we should get together to prevent the preventable diseases spreading.

We appeal to school principals to keep the school premises free from water stagnation and to keep the environment clean so that we could minimise the numbers than the previous season, he noted.

D.S. Senanayaka Principal Asoka Senani said although he had personal connections with the Colombo Municipal Council, as a citizen he thought the service rendered by the CMC was very poor.

Even the dengue eradication program started by the CMC was just like an inspection that occurs once a year with education supervisors or inspectors. But it should be a workable program which should be continued with an active group of the society, schoolchildren.

Our schoolchildren had not learnt to keep their environment clean but to make it unclean. In addition school vans that come to the city from 125 schools further worsen the situation by dumping their garbage after spending all day inside the vans.

The CMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam said there were 964 dengue patients from the city of Colombo and 12 deaths. Among them five were schoolchildren, and three deaths of children below the age of one year, the others were adults.