Agriculture ministry, exporters delay DDT spraying

Oct 23, 2007

INDOOR residual spraying of DDT to combat malaria is being delayed by the agriculture ministry and exporters, the Ministry of Health officials, have said.

By Fred Ouma

INDOOR residual spraying of DDT to combat malaria is being delayed by the agriculture ministry and exporters, the Ministry of Health officials, have said.

The health ministry was to start spraying DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) in Apac district on August 1. The district is regarded as a ‘malaria epicentre’ with over 1,500 mosquito bites per person in a year.

However, the agriculture ministry and exporters of produce refused to join the national task force which oversees the spraying.

They said the use of the pesticide, now sanctioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), would affect their production and trade.

Addressing journalists at the Malaria Research Centre in Kampala recently, the head of the National Malaria Control Programme, Dr. John Bosco Rwakimari, said his ministry had fulfiled the conditions set by the National Environmental Management Authority for the spraying that is supposed to take off between January and February 2008.

“We informed the Stockholm Convention and WHO about our readiness to re-introduce DDT as one of the means to fight malaria,” said Rwakimari.
“We are determined not to delay the spraying any longer come 2008.”

He noted that in the districts of Kabale and Kanungu where they sprayed ICON, a chemical with short residual effect, people were already complaining about the presence of mosquitoes.

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