Editorial
Disaster management pitfalls
Medical support needs to be geared up even more
That the flood is receding is welcome news but the news of the severe health hazards that the flood-affected people are facing is far from solace to us. We are concerned at the rising number of deaths due to various diseases, malnutrition, lack of adequate relief and drowning. Admittedly, our forecasting mechanism is unable to make a long-term flood prognostication but, given that we are visited by flood almost every year, merited a contingency plan to tackle its aftereffects. It will not be wrong to say that the two previous floods, in 1988 and 1998, were more severe and more prolonged than the current one provided we do not get a second bout in mid-August. Yet, unfortunately, the impact in terms of the number of human casualties in this case is relatively higher than in the past two instances. Incidences of gastrointestinal disease, a consequence of unclean drinking water; respiratory disease in children, a consequence of exposure to the elements due to lack of shelter; and incidences of dengue and malaria, give us an impression that the government's measures to tackle the after-flood situation are not as exhaustive as they might be. In one twenty-four hour period two days ago, more than six hundred persons were admitted to hospitals suffering from diarrhoea alone. The news that the government does not have adequate water purifying tablets will come as a shock to the multitudes that are suffering from lack of proper drinking water. While the government can do very little to enhance recession of flood under the present circumstances, its inability to provide the very basic necessities to keep people alive is woeful. The government's argument that water-purifying tablets have very short shelf life and thus cannot be produced in large quantities at one time, is no comfort to the victims. It is for the government to ensure adequate supply of lifesaving medicines, including water-purifying tablets, even at the risk of wasting some of these tablets. After all, wastage of a certain quantity of water purifying tablet is less costly than human lives lost for the lack of it. We are also not convinced that the four thousand or so medical teams, spread over the vast area affected by flood can be effective, more so when they lack adequate medical supplies to tackle all kinds of diseases rooted to water recession. We apprehend that some of the diseases, particularly those afflicting children and women, may assume epidemic proportions unless the government gears up its medical support efforts. The government should act fast.
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