The MCD figures for cholera and gastroenteritis cases in the first four months of the last three years are a testimony to the absolute absence of improvement in the summer health chart of the Capital.

For instance, there were no cholera cases in the first four months of 1997 but the number was 60 last year and 70 this year during the same period.

As the summer has just begun, these figures should be taken as just the tip of iceberg, MCD officials said last week. The figures have neared the 100-mark now.

In the case of gastroenteritis, another disease caused by contaminated food and water, the figures for the last three years have remained largely at par. In 1997 the figure was 10,069 for the first four months; it was 11,086 last year during the same time and this year till April 8, it is already 7,736.

MCD health department officials say that the figure will be the same as last year's by the end of this month.

There have been 119 jaundice cases these four months while there were 98 cases in 1998 till March, and 159 in 1997 for the same period.

Medical Health Officer Dr K.N. Tiwari says that these diseases are caused by the same set of reasons -- shallow hand pumps, open drains near houses, uncovered and contaminated food. But the main cause is poor personal hygiene, he says.

While the causes and consequences for the last few years remain unchanged, health officials admit that the strategy to fight the diseases have also remained unchanged. Dr Tiwari said that the health department was adopting the usual remedies adopted in the previous years, which consisted of the supply of chlorine pills and Oral Rehydration Solution packets in slum pockets. This is despite the fact that the soaring cholera and gastroenteritis figures make a mockery of these steps.

Health Minister A.K.Walia admitted that water lines often leaked and water got mixed with the water in the drains. He agreed that the MCD which is in charge of cleaning the drains has not been doing it as it had problems paying the contractors. ``We have been holding meetings with the MCD,'' he said when asked if he had no power to enforce cleaning of the city's drains by the MCD.

He also said that he had asked the Infectious Diseases Hospital under the MCD to report to him regularly on the number of cases of cholera and other diseases and the area of their incidence.

He takes consolation from the fact that there have been no cholera deaths so far. One of the steps planned as a preventive measure is to paint the shallow handpumps which are illegally dug by residents in various parts of the city red. The MCD is to do it in a week so that people know that the water in it is not fit for drinking, he said.

``Besides, a white paper would be ready on the slum clusters in a month, chalking out the facilities for them including public toilets and water,'' he said.

Asked why these measures are thought of only when the city is gripped by an epidemic, he had nothing to say. ``Health workers would be going around the city to detect any case of cholera and jaundice,'' he said.

Asked what steps the government was taking against unlicenced ice and ice cream factories, he said that random checking was usually done. Asked whether any unlicenced ice factories or ice cream manufacturers had been caught and penalised so far, he said he was not aware of any such case.

The Indian Medical Association as well as the city's doctors have been calling for long-term preventive measures like curbs on the sale of cut fruit and the closure of unlicenced ice factories, with little effect.

An MCD conference on water borne and vector borne diseases last year had said that its various departments would work in tandem to keep Delhi clean and healthy. But officials in the department had expressed misgivings about the success of any such joint effort. True to their fears, shallow hand pumps continue to be used, open drains continue to be turned into garbage dumps and disease continues to be triumphant.