Dengue

Sad to hear that as of today, 11 people have died to dengue in Singapore. I never expected dengue to rear its ugly head again, this is the year 2005 not the 60s. Gone are the kampung days with muddy tracks and puddles.  With our modern walk way and housing, where do these mosquitoes breed? The authorities are blaming residents.  But I’m sure by now, with the national campaign and inspection from NEA officers, every household would know what to do.  But yet, the statistics tell the truth. 11 has died and more cases are reported daily.

My guess is it is the public areas (drains, vacant land, parks, etc).  Are they checked and cleaned properly?  But who cleans and check?  Outsourced cleaning companies.  Most companies have down sized and implementing cost cutting measures to stay afloat or to beat the competition, I am guessing cleaners are over worked and probably have  to clean more streets and drains.  Upfront this saves the company, but in the long run wouldn’t quality of work be affected?  Furthermore, these companies have to bid aggressively to win tenders put out by various government agencies and statutory boards. Cheapest wins. But at what cost?

Perhaps it is time for the relevant authorities to rethink on their tender system.  But I hear in order for an agency to not award the tender to the cheapest bidder, they have to write a long justification. Now which officer would want to spend the effort, stick his neck out for that?  Isn’t it easier to just sit back and just go with the flow?  It is the safest thing to do, if anything fails, the officer is just abiding by the rules.  Sure they can hammer the vendors, but remember these vendors are struggling to make ends meet. But hammering these vendors is too late as in this Dengue case. How many lives must be lost before somebody re-look into this?