Thousands of people, mainly from the Dry Zone have died/disabled as a result of the Chronic Renal Failure (CRF). The Health Ministry has established two separate units one in Kandy and the other in Anurdhapura to treat those patients affected by CRF. This is indeed creditable but it is necessary that appropriate actions are taken to prevent the incidence of CRF.

The most basic in such a programme is to determinate causal factor/s of CRF. Most people in the dry zone drink water obtained from tanks. Water in these tanks are highly polluted with pesticides, fertilizers etc. as all the run-off water gets collected. In these tanks. It is likely that CRF is caused by these chemicals in drinking water. According to some studies high cadmium levels in water is the causal factor.

In view of this situation the responsible authorities, such as Ministries of Health, Science and Technology and Education, and Water Resources Board need to implement immediately an integrated programme to control the occurrence of CRF in the country before thousand of our people are affected.

Prof. C.S. Weeraratna