Dengue and the development of the inner man

The next mayor of Colombo is going to have his hands full, with the control of dengue not going to be the least of his problems. The statistics front- paged by us yesterday, suggest the daunting proportions of the problem. Among the nine dengue high-risk areas are, the Colombo Municipal Council, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia and Kolonnawa, which constitute the country's urban nucleus. Of the 58 deaths from dengue reported in the Colombo district over the past eight months of this year, 22 have been from the Colombo Municipal Council area.

However, development seems to be proceeding apace if the monies allocated for development purposes in the Colombo district are anything to go by. It was only yesterday that we reported the range of projects for which substantial funds were allocated at a recent Colombo District Co-ordination Committee meeting. They included road development, 'Divi Neguma' and 'Gama Neguma' activities. As we see it, clearly conceptualizing development, should figure very high on the City Fathers' priority list.

The health authorities lost no time in taking the dengue demon by the horns and they have, apparently, been steady with the task of identifying and destroying dengue-breeding sites, but they are sure to have been confronted with a plethora of very uncomfortable posers. For instance, Colombo is the veritable nerve centre of the country's economy but the conditions that give rise to dengue are most rampant in the district.

When we make this point, we are not only referring to urban sprawl and unplanned building construction but also urban squalor and a seeming unconcern among some urban dwellers for personal and family hygiene and salubrious environs. These are chief among the causes of ill health and Colombo is notorious for them, it seems.

The health authorities discovered to their dismay in the course of their recent investigations, that the residents of Colombo were not few who did not care a straw for how clean and disease-proof their environs were.

It is common knowledge now that the factors that help breed dengue are absolutely controllable, if the citizenry would only care to do what is required. Since the dengue mosquito has its origins in still water, all that one needs to do to ward off the disease is to ensure that all water collecting sites are eliminated.

This is a relatively simple task but one that requires constant vigilance, conscientiousness and public-spiritedness on the part of the resident.

Here's where the rub is. How willing is one to go the extra mile to ensure that his environs are free of the conditions that breed the dengue menace? In other words, how receptive is the citizen to an ethical consciousness that would enable him to sacrifice narrow, selfish ends for the collective good of the community?

Thus, it could be seen that questions relating to the health of the nation lead to very fundamental issues which do not seem to have an immediate connection with the health sector proper. Since Colombo is the biggest offender on the problem of dengue-breeding, the City Fathers would need to go well beyond an assessment and analysis of the physical conditions that touch on the public's well being to the factors that would expedite the formation of a strong public and ethical consciousness in the city dweller. In other words, how does one make a public-spirited citizen out of the urban dweller is the question.

Therefore, it is a question of going back to our first lessons in civics and ethics. While the development of our physical environs continues apace, much time needs to be also spent on bringing about a positive attitudinal change in the citizen, which would generate within him a public-spiritedness.

This brings us to our initial question. What is development? The latter process, certainly, has a lot to do with careful monetary resource allocations and the development of our physical environs, but all this would come to nothing if the citizen lacks an ethical consciousness which would promote in him an eagerness to serve the community and the country. If the development of the inner and outer man does not proceed in unison, development would only be a dead letter.