Dengue Alert

Choked and overflowing drain and sum pit at jct of Gentle and Buckley Road - across from Revenue House

Sent to REACH and NEA on 1 June 2007:





Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 20:05:06 -0700 (PDT)

Re: Choked and overflowing drain and sum pit at jct of Gentle and Buckley Road - across from Revenue House

To: REACH
cc: NEA CEO

1 June 2007

Please see attached photos taken at the subject junction on 31 May 2007 at around 1.34 pm.

You will note that the chokage at the sum pit and surrounding drains had caused the water to overflow. But fortunately, the overflowing water resulting from the chokage was not serious enough to cause any flooding around the area.

What is worrying is that because of the chokage (probably caused by uncleared fallen leaves, litter, etc..), it is potentially a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes, given that the dengue is back.

Why is it that despite all the efforts that have been put in by the various government agencies (the formation of the inter-ministerial committee to tackle the menace since the major outbreak in 2005), the lessons are still not well learnt?

Well, of course, complacency is partly to blame.

And perhaps coupled with that, an attitude of "It is someone else's responsibility"? (By the way, is this affected area (public drains and sum pit) mentioned herein the responsibility of NEA? PUB? Outsouced contractors? Who else?

May I suggest that perhaps the government can adopt the "Name and Shame" (visit related site http://namenshame.blogspot.com to view listing of these culprits) strategy by identifying which areas that have been found to be breeding mosquitoes and under whose responsibilities (eg town councils, PUB, outsourced contractors, developers, individual household residents, etc...) with the corresponding Corrective Work Order (CWO) of "area cleaning" for culprits?

I can understand its reluctance (as the culprits might well be its own agencies (like NEA, PUB, MOE, HDB, etc..) or areas under its management (like PAP town councils), but in the interest of public health and accountability, the government should be transparent in identifying who the real culprits are. Otherwise, we will keep having the perennial problem again and again....

Rgds
Jeff
http://www.denguealert.blogspot.com/

posted by Dengue Alert In Singapore @ 11:07 AM