Rains, Dengue and Games

Delhi is wet and getting wetter everyday. It has not rained like this for over a decade. More rains are to follow. The Met department says that September could be the wettest. You walk anywhere in Delhi, pools of water will be there for you to negotiate. They are also the breeding ground for dengue larvae. More than 1200 people are in hospitals, many of whom do not have reserve blood platelets for the patients. Delhi is also dug out, as government and various other agencies keep clueless how to get their hands off to the unfinished Commonwealth Games projects. A diseased city awaits the Games in less than a month to rejoice in the splendour of going to host the mega sporting events, which will make the nation proud.

Dengue outbreak had kept the city on nerves in 2006 also when 36 people had lost their lives. This year dengue outbreak has nerved the people the most. So much so that the people are just praying that they are not the next in the daily count of new patients. Delhi government says that the dengue this year is not virulent and hospitals have enough blood platelets. The government was hardly seen so openly lying.

A day before I went to donate blood platelets to a Delhi government hospital, Institute of Liver and Billiary Sciences, where brother of a friend was admitted. He was admitted there after the AIIMS, Max and Fortis said they had no beds. This hospital hardly had any bank of blood platelets, while it was also stated to be full with patients. Approach to this hospital, including its uncovered premises, was all littered with pools of water with mosquitoes buzzing enough to scare the people.

Delhi should have celebrated rains. But not as it has been raining diseases. It will be utterly wrong to blame the rains for diseases, as the buck stops with the government agencies who forgot what their jobs are and remained dug out in the quagmire of the Games preparations. Apparently Rs 40,000 crores have been spent but there are no signs that the mega sporting events would bring any pride for the nation. Those in charge of organising the events and putting up infrastructure are at best busy in ensuring that they are not caught with their pants down.

It was a surprise to see the municipal workers finally fogging and spraying chemicals on pools of water to destroy dengue larvae. This was a pleasant surprise as they were hardly seen so far. If the municipal safai karamcharis were also put on their jobs, Delhi would have hardly seen so much of water lying everywhere. But they are seldom seen, though they number quite large to the extent of more than 60,000.

India is applauded world over for making plans and slammed in equal intensity for shoddy implementation. The Games alas is heading for one of the worst managed sporting events. Hopefully, accountability will be fixed once the Games are over. But it appears that we have not only lost an opportunity but also played with the lives of hundreds of people. Hope the cost is not too high, though it has already been very high.