Pesticide campaigns that totally eradicate certain species of insects can actually do more harm to Saudi Arabia's eco system than improving public health, a leading environmental expert warned this week. Dr. Said Zaghloul, an advisor with the Plant Resources and Wildlife Conservation Authority, said it would be wrong to completely eradicate certain species of insects, such as mosquitos or houseflies. He said it has been a common practice in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, that authorities such as city municipalities extend their pesticide campaigns beyond urban limits into the natural habitat of insects. They wrongly believe that total extermination of insects helps to stamp out certain communicable diseases. “Extending a pesticide campaign into the natural habitat of animals and insects, such as the wilderness, is simply wrong,” said Zaghloul. He said authorities should keep their pesticide operations within city limits in order to effectively control the spread of communicable diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and malaria. In most such diseases, mosquitoes and houseflies served as intermediate hosts, or sometimes carriers of the disease-causing germs. Zaghloul said maintaining an ecological balance in nature is significantly important. “More than 60 of 2,250 plant species, and at least eight animal species, are already listed as endangered in the Kingdom,” he said. He added that there has been a common – and wrong – perception that certain animal or plant species are entirely harmful to man, when in fact all creatures are significantly essential to life and maintaining a proper eco-system, which is ultimately beneficial to humans. “The existence of mosquitoes and houseflies in their natural habitat is equally essential for ecological balance,” he said, adding that even scorpions and poisonous snakes are important to preserve the balance of nature. He said awareness campaigns should take this into consideration when they encourage residents to keep their surroundings clean. He said his department is planning a week-long training program for teachers, both men and women. The training program for a batch of 25 educators from each group will help them teach students how to keep the environment healthy. During the six-hour daily classes, educators will also be trained on how they should instill a feeling of appreciation for the environment among their students. “If the students understand the significance of the environment at an early age, they would tend to protect and preserve not only their surroundings, but also the natural habitat of other living creatures,” he said. Zaghloul added that environmental protection is already a problem in the Kingdom with excessive grazing and unnecessary tree cutting. The Kingdom's laws criminalize hunting, grazing and wood cutting in certain reserved areas. He said the training center established in Riyadh in 1998 has so far trained around 300 educators, both national and foreign. The Municipality of Riyadh and other civic bodies in the Kingdom conduct pesticide campaigns throughout the year to reduce chances of the residents catching communicable diseases. Recently, Jeddah was in the spotlight for a growing number of dengue cases. However, the Kingdom has successfully eradicated polio through national vaccination campaigns organized at regular intervals. __
