Stop blaming the Govt

THE EDITOR: When we hear of mosquitoes, our Government’s knee jerk response is to spray more toxic malathion/diesel mixture into the environment. Is that really the best response or should we not be ensuring the exhaustion of other options first?

It's not just Government’s fault! Unapproved, unregulated, unauthorised and poor planning or development has led to siltation of our rivers and watercourses. The continuous discard of plastic and garbage blocks random watercourses. A sleeping Parliament has not passed the Beverage Containers Bill (which has collected dust for over 20 years and) which would facilitate the collection and recycling of waste plastic.

The end result is stagnant water bodies where mosquitoes are creating public endangerment. Government has a role to play, yes, but residents and resident businesses have a greater role as they are at the front line and on the ground.

We must all take some responsibility to keep a clean space. Focus needs to be placed on long-term preventive measures that create community awareness and individual responsibility.

We need a systematic approach that tackles the mosquito habitat. Mosquitoes cannot survive without its habitat. Malathion fogging only reduces the adult mosquito populations by 60 per cent and only for a short period of time, but it has no effect on the larvae and pupae stages which eventually mature and repopulate overnight.

It's not just the Government's duty, but the duty of each citizen to care for our environment. Without an empowered public participation, the Government blame game will not remove this danger.

Malathion spraying places a temporary “toxic” patch on this public health risk, further risking environmental and human health. Isn’t it time we each do our part to clean our homes and our watercourses. We all must be held accountable.

Gary Aboud

Fishermen and

Friends of the Sea