District in-charge Minister Eshwar Khandre has asked Health Department officials to contain the spread of water-borne diseases that have broken out across the district. At a meeting recently, he set a deadline of one week to ensure that no fresh cases were reported.
The officials told him that 965 persons from the district had contracted gastroenteritis and another eight, cholera, all in a period of three months. There had been one suspected death also, officials said. They reasoned that open defecation, use of contaminated sources of water and roadside eateries serving contaminated food were the prime reasons for the spread of the disease.
Mr. Khandre asked for details on the steps taken by concerned departments such as health, rural sanitation, and revenue to contain the diseases. He asked them to speed up the process of building toilets for rural families.
Clean drinking water
“Our immediate focus should be providing clean water. Panchayat development officers should instruct watermen and other officials to check for possibilities of contamination of water sources. They should collect water samples and send them for testing,” he said.
He asked the officials to ensure that doctors were available in all primary and community health centres and taluk and district hospitals. “Poor patients should not be forced to go to Hyderabad or Solapur for treatment,” the Minister said.
Mr. Khandre asked deputy commissioner Anurag Tewari to close down all eateries, outdoor or indoor, that do not maintain cleanliness. “We need to create awareness about the use of purified water,” he said.
Awareness
He also urged folk artistes to spread awareness against practices like open defecation. He asked officials not to play blame games and shift responsibility from one department to the other. “In the eyes of the people, the government is one entity. We would do well to realise that,” he stated.
