ProtectAfrica
Ensuring Life, Health and Prosperity for Future GenerationsUganda: Ministry of Health Abandons DDT in North
The Ugandan government is preparing its case regarding the use of DDT in Uganda. For now, use of the toxic chemical has been halted.
Protests in Lango over the use of DDT resulted in the detention and arrests of several people. Organic growers in Lango have considered suing the government for potential losses. Nine companies also have sued the government.
Accountability and corruption are also impediments to effectively managing health issues. The Global Health Fund is currently pressuring Uganda to return money that was pilfered from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by government officials entrusted with the funds.
Uganda still has time to redeem itself and avoid further international embarrassment by utilizing a chemical that has been banned in most of the world.
Unless the Ugandan government wises up, Uganda’s “Gifted by Nature” slogan could soon change to “Sprayed by DDT.” DDT is bad for Uganda’s image, bad for business and bad for tourism.
~ Hellen Otii
Malaria Control in Africa: is DDT necessary?
Despite full knowledge of DDT's toxicity, USAID is still implementing use of the pesticide on innocent Africans.
. . the Bush Administration . . . recently changed the policy of the US Agency for International Development to increase reliance on DDT in its malaria programs. Bush Administration supporter Senator Tom Coburn was quoted in WHO’s press statement, which was released from Washington DC rather than WHO headquarters in Geneva.
“The recent shift in US policy reflects a well organized DDT promotion campaign by a handful of aggressive advocates,” says Kristin Schafer, Program Coordinator for Pesticide Action Network North America.
“This effort is supported by conservative organizations and think tanks with funding from the U.S. pesticide industry, including Monsanto.”
DDT Threatens Uganda’s Organic Farms
Three weeks after Uganda began spraying homes with DDT, as part of a controversial malaria-control program, a coalition of organic farmers and exporters sued the government for violating the World Health Organization’s (WHO) safety guidelines for spraying. Uganda derives 60% of its export revenue from organically grown coffee, cotton, produce and flowers. Its yearly $500 million market could be affected if DDT contaminates these export crops.
An organic cotton exporter told The East African that improper home spraying had contaminated “farm-tools, bicycles and produce.” A committee set up to assure compliance with WHO standards has apparently never met. Uganda (the only East African country using DDT to battle malaria) argues that DDT is 50% cheaper than a pyrethroid insecticide alternative.
In South Africa, Zambia and Ethiopia, DDT is sprayed in townships, far removed from agricultural areas. In Uganda, however, spraying is conducted in rural villages where crops are frequently grown.
Court halts DDT spray in northern Uganda
Good news for northern Ugandan citizens.
“The High Court in Kampala has ordered the Ministry of Health to suspend the spraying of DDT until there is a ruling on a suit that seeks to stop the spraying of the chemical in northern Uganda.
According to the interim court order, issued last Friday by Justice Arach Amoko, any spraying of the insecticide will be “null and void or otherwise illegal”.
The article promotes the government’s preposterous view that DDT is not a toxic substance.
“There has been no compelling evidence of the harm posed by DDT to human health, and defenders of the chemical say that its public health benefits cannot be ignored.”
Nine Companies Sue Govt Over DDT
By Paul Amoru | Kampala
The government is embroiled in a court battle with nine companies from Lango over the use of Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane (DDT), a chemical used to kill mosquitoes that transmit malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
The companies sued the government for sanctioning the Indoor Residual Spraying of DDT in Lango sub-region.
