Teachers, students keep the epidemics away in Pune district

Teachers, students keep the epidemics away in Pune district
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

PUNE, JULY 6: The method of resisting epidemics is simple for the zilla Parishad (ZP) in Pune district. It has revived a unique house-to-house water purification project which was last implemented in 1,651 villages of the district from April 1999-February 2000.

Under this project, every Monday, two school-teachers in every ZP school prepare a judicious mixture of trichlorethylene (TCL) or bleaching powder and water and distribute a bottle of 10 ml of the mixture to each of their students. The students, in their turn, drop two drops of the mixture into every pitcher of water they come across in their homes and the neighbourhood. This, the ZP believes, would ensure for all the people of the region safe and clean drinking water, keeping the villages away from deadly diseases like gastroenteritis, cholera, Hepatitis-B etc.

The water purification scheme had proved to be very effective, district health officer Dr C M Ghojamgunde observed, as there was no outbreak of epidemics in the adivasi belts of Junnar, Ambegaon and Khed during the project period last year. He also informed that the outbreak of gastroenteritis and cholera had raged in the past only when the schools were shut for vacations, thus resulting in a temporary suspension of the scheme.

Hence, the scheme is being implemented again this year following Dr Ghojamgunde's warning on Wednesday that epidemics could strike hard this year, in keeping with the cyclical trend which sees outbreaks of certain diseases every alternate year.

Lauding the scheme, chief executive officer, ZP, V Radha, said at a press conference that the scheme was a scientific experiment for the students to drive home a message to them on the hazards of water contamination and importance of personal hygiene.

The water purification scheme is being implemented through the ZP's education and health department and the panchayat samiti.

The ZP has organised a district-wide orientation programme, including prabhat pheris and mahila mandal meetings, to enlighten the villagers about the scheme. Medical officers have been appointed who would be responsible for the training of the teachers for the scheme.

V Radha stressed that the 70-80 per cent distribution rate could increase if villagers were educated to get over their scepticism about the project.

From February this year, the ZP has started ranking the 88 primary health care centres on an ascending scale of A to D grades on the basis of nine indicators, including population, out-patient department cases, deliveries, abdominal tubectomies, visits of medical officers and new tuberculosis cases. Within four months, the A centres have shot up from zero to six, while D centres have reduced from 49 to 16.