Editorial»
Jajarkot revisited?
MAY 16 -
The government seemed to have learnt its lesson. As if chastened by the loss of over 200 lives in the diarrhoea outbreak in Mid West last year, the Ministry of Health had been in recent times been making all the right noises. It was apparently in ‘high alert’ for an outbreak; had completed the distribution of essential medicine and equipment to all 75 districts and set aside additional budget and medicine for 16 high-risk ones. It had even provisioned for ‘rapid action teams’ in every district. All these led us a month ago to express our cautious optimism that the new mechanisms put in place to forestall a 2009-like outbreak might actually work, potentially saving hundreds of lives in the process. Turns out: our optimism was rather unjustified.
At least 20 people have already succumbed to diarrhoea in Mid West inside the first month of the Nepali calendar — even before the onset of the monsoon when water-borne diseases spike. This begs the question: was the government honest in its assurance that all measures had been adopted to prevent another epidemic? Or did the authorities believe (rather naively, if so) that the preventive measures outlined on paper could be implemented, ipso facto, in the difficult terrains of the Mid-West?
As casualties mount this year, cracks are beginning to emerge in the supposedly foolproof plan. Despite an increase in budgetary allocation towards tackling dysentery and diarrhoea in the Mid-West, most of the money is going into seminars and group discussions at district headquarters, rather than into building infrastructure in more remote areas where they are likely to make most difference.
Take the heartbreaking case of 14-year-old Pima Bista of Dang district. Without a health station close by, Bista lost her life to diarrhoea while toing and frowing between her home at Loharpani VDC and the nearest health post — which was two hours away. Incredibly, at least a dozen people had contracted the disease in the VDC before the district health officials caught a whiff of the troubles at Loharpani. Moreover, the government’s claim to have equipped all health posts well is given a lie by the admission of local authorities in Dang that they are short of essential medicine.
Thus the best of plans on paper has gone rather
awry during implementation stage. For instance, as
open defecation was thought as one of the main reasons
for rapid spread of diarrhoea last year, 150 toilets
were promptly commissioned across 20 Jajarkot VDCs.
But although contracts for the toilets have been long handed out, not a single one has been built.
In Rukum, diarrhoea patients writhe in pain outside health posts. There is no one to look after them inside. Says a local of Runmamaikot VDC, which houses a sub-health post: “Health officials only come here after people start dying in huge numbers.” History, sadly, seems to be repeating itself throughout the Mid West.
Posted on: 2010-05-17 07:48
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