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Biting
news And yes, the
news has reached overseas as well. Earlier it was terrorism that
was giving Sri Lanka a bad name but now it seems the "dengue"
mosquito has taken its place. The first question that many Lankans
living abroad ask before coming here on vacation is, "Will
I end up having dengue?" That is a question no one can answer
just as we couldn't answer their earlier query where and when a
bomb would explode. When my sister
called a couple of weeks ago, before venturing to the tropics from
the cool climes of Europe where she lives, the "dengue"
phobia had reached her ears as well. I reassured her that the chances
of her being bitten by "aedes aegypti or aedes albopictus"
- the mozzies that cause this possibly fatal disease were slim.
Anyway she wasn't taking any chances and had come armed with a mosquito
repellent spray to keep the pests away. She obviously wasn't alone
as record numbers of Sri Lankans are visiting the country especially
during this time of the year when it's summer vacation. The visitors
will come and go after a few weeks but those of us who live here
have to worry about this menace every day. And for those of us with
children, there is an added burden, what with school compounds themselves
being found to be breeding grounds for mosquitoes. One positive
aspect of all this seems to be how aware children have become of
the importance of keeping the environment clean and disposing of
garbage in a manner that there is no room for mosquitoes to breed.
My eight-year-old son is the first to spot places that mosquitoes
can breed in and point them out to me. All the public
awareness programmes seem to have got the message across to children
even though most adults still continue to show callous disregard
for the basic rules of keeping the environment clean. Of course,
most of the local bodies are asleep as usual waiting for each and
every blocked drain or garbage dump to be highlighted on TV or in
the newspapers before they tackle the problem like heroes in the
full glare of the camera lights and then forget about it once again. A recent news
item on TV showed how the residents of a Colombo suburb decided
to take the law into their own hands and blocked a van that was
dumping garbage in a residential area. If the local bodies don't
act, I suppose people will have no choice but to resort to this
kind of action. Anyway, I remember
a time my mother would grumble that the mosquitoes were biting everyone
around the house and not her and she was sure there was something
wrong with her system that she was thus ignored. These days, of
course she considers herself blessed. I wish we all had her luck. Man and mosquitoes
have had a love-hate relationship since time immemorial, i.e. we
hate them and they love us but we need to show them that we are
smarter and start cleaning up our surroundings. So next time you
decide to dump your garbage, empty bottles, containers or any other
item where water can collect, please think twice. You don't want
to be outlived by an insect, do you? |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
that
seems to be affecting so many people around us.
