Annual report of the Director, Medical & Health Department / Colony of Mauritius.

  • Mauritius. Medical and Health Department
Date:
[1930]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Director, Medical & Health Department / Colony of Mauritius. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/72 (page 43)
    APPENDIX VII. 43 REPORT FOR 1930 ON THE DISTRICTS OF MOKA, GRAND PORT AND SAVANNE I have the honour to forward the annual report on the work done in the Southern Districts during 1930. The statistics reveal a worse condition than in the preceding years attributable to the economic crisis which is constantly becoming more acute. 1929 had been a bad year for the elderly, 1930 has raised a heavy toll among the young, especially children under 10, of the lowei classes, the result of underfeeding inseparable from the low rate of wages which has mled and the relatively high cost of living and also of the epidemic of whooping cough* Economic conditions bear directly on health ; these have been steadily working more and more adversely during the last six years—Compression of expenditure, in so far at any rate as Sanitation is concerned, has resulted. It involves a reduction of control and the impossibility of insisting upon improvements on the part of the public whose means hardly suffice for their material upkeep. Extension of cultivation on the other hand and the obtention of better yields of the only produce is not possible, the maximum having been reached. Further, Mauritius has a population almost double that it should normally be expected to support. The high price of sugar during the years immediately following the War brought about a corresponding increase in the value of land property which unfortu¬ nately has not been brought down concurrently with the fall in the selling value of the staple produce. So long as this fictitious value given to property is maintained and conditions are not allowed to revert to the normal [pre-war] standard, there will be no issue to the crisis and no stop to the deterioration of the health of the inhabitants. SOIL SANITATION 3. The following table gives the number of pit and pail latrines in the districts— District Pit latrines Pail latrines Total Moka Savanne 2,541 3,307 1,859 762 4,400 4,069 Grand Port: Rose Belle Mahebourg 3,217 2,162 255 225 3,472 2,387 Total ... 11,227 3,101 14,328 The number of new latrines provided during the year is pit, 191 ; pail, 36. SCAVENGING 4. Government continues attending to the scavenging of Mahebourg, Rose Belle, New -Grove and Mare d’Albert. The other villages of the section are cleaned by Contractors who on the whole give satisfaction. With the exception of the Moka—St. Pierre Contractor no fines had to be imposed for neglect of service. The contract for the village mentioned terminated in the middle of the year and the service was entrusted to a new contractor who has hitherto discharged his obligations. WATER SUPPLY 5. No change can be reported in this respect save that two or three additional stand¬ pipes have been provided at Grand Bois and Camp Rabaud where shortcomings in respect of the supply have given and still continue to give rise to complaints. The greater propor¬ tion of this supply, primarily intended for Sivanne, is now diverted to Grand Port where the hamlets of Mare Tabac and Riv. du Poste now enjoy the advantage? of a pipe supply. But unfortunately as in the case of Bois Cheri and Grand B )is although a long length of piping crosses the hamlets the number of standpipes is at a minimum, and despite the fact ‘that the inhabitants pav a water rate, a large proportion still draw their water from the surface streams and wells constantly polluted by the washing of clothes etc.