Richard Tren
Killing the malaria killer
IPN Opinion article
On World Malaria Day, activists and governments discuss many weapons against the disease except one of the most effective: DDT
EU’s “precaution” on DDT threatens lives of millions of Africans, says health charity
IPN Press release
Europe's junk science risks African lives
IPN Opinion article
"Europe is out of step. Instead of helping Uganda save lives, the EU threatens to ban agricultural imports from Uganda, relying on junk science and protectionism to shape its public health policy. The EU has not issued any official statement on its DDT policy, preferring to issue vague threats via the media. While the EU may not be as bold as USAID by actually buying DDT, it should stop its malicious attacks on efficiency and good science."
Push to fund DDT in fight against malaria in Africa
IPN Opinion article
Now, even as wealthy nations approve aid for Africa to fight malaria, critics say that by not explicitly authorizing the use of DDT, Western environmental standards are being applied to the developing world, where long-term, often unproven, risks take precedence over immediate needs - at a cost of thousands of lives.
\"It\'s ecoimperialism,\" says Richard Tren, head of Africa Fighting Malaria, an independent organization which advocates the use of DDT. \"DDT is not permitted in Sweden. Well, that\'s well and good. But you\'re not going to die of malaria in Sweden.\"
Africa Needs DDT
IPN Opinion article
If political correctness saved lives, malaria would no longer be a problem. Unfortunately, it doesn\'t, and some donor agencies are doing more harm than good.
DDT still saving lives
IPN Opinion article
The South African Department of Health reintroduced DDT in 2000 and in one year saw an 80 percent reduction in the number of cases. Since then malaria has almost become a rarity for physicians
It is not only in South Africa that DDT is saving lives. Dr. John Goyere from World Health Organization Africa estimates that over 16 million people in seven different African countries, including Ethiopia, Eritrea and Madagascar, are currently protected by the insecticide.
In an exciting example of private provision of public health, the Konkola Copper Mine in Zambia started malaria control in the two towns around its mining operations using DDT. As explained by Dr. Brian Sharp and others in a recent paper in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health, after one spraying round, the number of malaria cases was dramatically reduced.
Water for African cities
IPN Opinion article
The fact that the poor often pay so much for water seems to add weight to complaints by major groups like Oxfam and Friends of the Earth that water is being made a commodity for sale, when it should be \"a global human right.\" These groups, under the banner Eco-Equity, demand that privatization should be reversed and that aid should be increased to prevent so many deaths from water related diseases.
However, Richard Tren a writer on water and a consultant to the South African Government\'s Water Research Commission criticized the approach of the U.N. Foundation and the major groups saying it was very northern focused. It was true that water access was a problem in urban areas, he said, but the main reason for this was because so much water was used in agriculture.
