The DDT debate: to spray or not to spray?

Collins Vumiria

Kakaire's blog - It all started with a severe headache – got me thinking about malaria, about DDT, and about the potential for conflict between environmental concerns and health.

Uganda is rightly worried about the tens of thousands of its citizens thought to die of malaria each year. So is the World Health Organisation (WHO). Perhaps that’s why after years of banning the anti-malarial DDT, the WHO now says it’s safe.

In February I attended a summit of health ministers from the East African community. One of the issues discussed was the residual spraying of DDT in homes to do away with malaria-spreading mosquitoes.

Tanzania's health minister said his country would embark on a nationwide programme of spraying after successfully ridding the island of Zanzibar of malaria. Other countries are following suit, with Uganda planning to start in the next couple of months.

Despite this, the controversy surrounding this chemical isn’t over yet. Several Ugandan environmental activists have detailed its dangers. And reports on the internet are mixed.

But there are other concerns too…

Before I travelled to Tanzania I happened to talk to some farmers in the western Ugandan district of Mbarara, who grow bananas for a German company. One of them, 65-year-old Samson Byangire, is worried that once DDT spraying begins his bananas will be rejected. Yet he relies on the income from these bananas for his family’s survival.

The government insists the chemical will only be used inside houses and will not get into the plantations. But people are asking: what if a housewife mops inside her home and pours the dirty water into a nearby irrigation channel?

I'd like to know whether these debates have made it outside Uganda. Will European buyers  continue to support their growers in developing countries once the spraying starts? Or will the livelihoods of Ugandan farmers be under threat as a byproduct of the Ugandan government trying to save lives?

Comments

[Francis Mutazindwa]

Drugs that we orally take to cure diseases like malaria, or even acaricides we use to shut down the activities of pests on our crops in the gardens, have side effects that could be harmful to the human being. Environmentalists will always protect their side of the story but what Uganda needs today is to protect the lives and health of their citizens by fighting the malaria spreading mosquitoe in the most effective way possible. Currently that way is use of DDT. Thanx to Vumiria for that out look.

[Erick Kabendera]

I think DDT's side effects could occur after many years of use. But the issue here is about the people who die everyday because of Malaria. In Zanzibar, people there dont need more Malaria drugs because of the effectiveness of DDT. If i can remember well, our minister for health confirmed to me in Arusha at ECSA summit that the government had returned Malaria drugs that were sent there to the mainland because the people dont need them anymore.

On the other hand, how many people in Africa settings can afford buying Malaria drugs, which the entire dose costs more than a dollar?

[Veltemi]

Malaria is still wide spread in Zanzibar. DDT is not sprayed outside of homes. I'm not sure where this information came from, but regarding Zanzibar, it is incorrect.