Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo.
- Colombo (Sri Lanka). Public Health Department
- Date:
- [1911]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo. Source: Wellcome Collection.
5/74 page 23
![is not in my opinion sound policy, since to utilize public markets as a source of general revenue is equivalent to putting a tax upon food. They should, I think, be merely self-supporting, and if it is found that after making due provision for putting them into an up-to-date condition, and maintaining them so, there is a substantial balance, then the stall rents should be reduced. This should have the much-needed effect of reducing the price of food stuffs in Colombo. If it does not do so then the market prices should be fixed by regulation. In dealing with this financial aspect of the question one may appear to have diverged somewhat from the point in connection with which it was introduced, viz., the present insanitary condition of the public markets ; but the two subjects are so closely associated that they cannot be dealt with apart. The proposed new Food and Drugs Act will, if adopted, greatly increase the sanitary control over the food supply, but we are handicapped by the want of sufficient staff. The ordinary householder here requires so much keeping up to the mark in the matter of domestic cleanliness that unless the Sanitary Inspectors spend the bulk of their time in inspecting private premises the sanitary condition of these rapidly degenerates. In addition to this they have so many other duties to attend to in connection with infectious diseases, bakeries, laundries, and such like, that they have very little time to give to food inspection unless they neglect some of their other work which, as experience has shown, would immediately result in our being inundated with com¬ plaints, for every householder here appears to think that it is the duty of the Public Health Department to devote the whole of its time to his own particular grievance, no matter how trivial it may be. I have repeatedly urged the necessity for appointing a Food Inspector, but so far my recommendations have not been/acted upon. Improvements effected.—In view of the existence of all these conditions, which are favourable to a high mortality from filth diseases, it seems reasonable to suppose that the steady decrease in the mortality from these diseases shown by the statistics has been due to the improvements which have been effected in other directions in the sanitary state of the town. A few of the chief of these improvements will now be mentioned. Scavenging.—That a very great improvement has been effected in the carrying out of the work of scavenging, both as regards the cleansing of private premises and of public streets, is apparent to anyone who can compare the state of affairs say ten years ago (prior to which I cannot speak from personal experience) with what exists now. Ten years ago there was no systematic inspection of private premises, most of the time of the Sanitary Inspectors being then occupied with duties which had nothing whatever to do with sanitation, such as collection of general revenue, revision of voters’ lists, and such like. Upon their being relieved of these non-sanit.ary duties, a system of routine inspection of all private premises in the town was instituted and has since been carried on. The effect of this was gradually to improve the state of cleanliness in which private premises were maintained. Much difficulty was, however, at first experienced owing to the fact that the scavenging of the public streets, and consequently the removal of rubbish put out by householders, was in the hands of a contractor, whose sole aim appeared to be to save as much as he possibly could on his contract which he had undertaken at an impossibly low figure. It was found impossible to make him abide by any time table, or to do his work properly, with the result that householders complained that it was no use putting out their rubbish. It was not, however, until the beginning of 1905 that the Council decided to abolish the contract system, and to have the work carried out departmentally under the Works Department, at whose hands it has since been gradually undergoing a process of complete re-organization. The improvement thus effected in the public scavenging greatly facilitated the work of making the householders keep their premises clean, as they began to learn that their rubbish if put out would be removed. The next step was for the Works Department to arrange for a proper scavenging time table, and to require householders to put out their rubbish in an approved type of sanitary dust bins at fixed hours. From January 1, 1908, copies of the time table and regulations printed in the vernacular were posted in the streets, served on householders, and announced by beat of tom-tom, and as the Engineer stated in his report, the results of this far exceeded expectations. The rapid increase in the quantity of rubbish put out from private premises for removal may be judged from the following quantities recorded by the Engineer :— Year. Carts Loads employed. removed. 1904 68 57,035 Work done by contractor. 1905 92 — Work done departmentally. 1906 113 — — 1907 122 101,902 — 1908 128 105,557 Trade refuse excluded. 1909 136 111,689 Garden refuse excluded. 1910 217 124,906 East extension included. 1911 231 146,785 Wellawatta extension. 1912 . . — . . — — Referring to the above enormous increase in the amount of rubbish removed, the Engineer remarked in his report that “ this means that the inspection of private premises must have been greatly improved, and the standard of cleanliness raised, for so large an increased quantity of rubbish to have been put out for removal by the Council’s carts.” The reduction in the death-rate from diarrheeal diseases and fevers would appear to support the same conclusion. Food Trades.—Not only has the greater cleanliness of private premises contributed towards this improvement in the death-rate from these filth diseases, but a great improvement has been effected in respect of dairies and bakeries as well as in the condition of eating-houses. The cleanliness of the public markets, difficult although they are to keep clean, has also been much improved as the result of a certain amount of structural improvement, combined with a reorganization of the staff and the introduction of a much more thorough system of inspection. Milk Supply.— The improvement in the milk supply is one of the most satisfactory features of the work of this department, the amount of adulteration having been reduced from 72 per cent, of samples examined in 1907 to \2\ per cent, in 1912. Special Measures.—Next, take the case of the work done with special reference to fevers. Ten years ago there was practically no notification of enteric fever, although the death-rate from fevers was then very much higher than it is now. Since that time notification has been insisted upon, every case being visited and inquired into ; a special gang of coolies is employed to clean up and disinfect premises where enteric cases have occurred : each case, which is not under the care of a qualified medical man, is visited daily throughout the illness, disin¬ fectants are supplied, instructions, both verbal and printed, are given, and a special covered latrine bucket with cyllin solution in it is supplied ; in cases where the isolation is bad, the patient is removed to the enteric hospital ; and within recent years the protective measure of inoculation has been urged ; all milk vendors are medically examined, and their blood is also examined bacteriologically, with a view to the detection of enteric carriers, before registration is granted. There are many more directions in which work has been carried on with a view to improving the sanitary conditions here, but the above will perhaps suffice to indicate what has been and still is being done. [ 307 ]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31753371_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
