Faiz Saleh Jamal Makkah daily Recent reports that a number of restaurants and eateries in Makkah and Jeddah have been shut down are shocking for many reasons, including the fact that about 85 percent of them were not committed to maintaining hygiene and cleanliness. The first reason for my shock is that a large number of Saudi families buy their meals from these restaurants. This means that public health may be greatly jeopardized. It also means that a number of serious and chronic diseases may spread in society as a result of the bad food. We have all felt this in recent years. It also means a great deterioration in the standard of living. These people with bad health as a result of bad food will be less happy than those in healthy societies. The second reason is that our municipalities were fast asleep, otherwise how is it possible that about 85 percent of the restaurants and food providers were not committed to maintaining hygiene and cleanliness? If the departments concerned with public health were working professionally, the number of the violating restaurants would never have spiraled out of control. This number simply means that the municipalities do not supervise the cleanliness of restaurants and are only content with issuing licenses and health certificates. A head of a branch municipality in Makkah once told me that his municipality was responsible for supervising more than 20,000 shops and restaurants and only had 15 supervisors to do the job. He said only three of the supervisors were awake and could do their job properly. I asked him whether the municipality was serious in its supervising and monitoring activities. The third reason for my shock is the Ministry of Health's attitude. We have not heard anything from it regarding the adverse effects of uncleanliness in restaurants on public health. The ministry seems to play the role of a spectator who is not part of what is going on the track or in the playground. The ministry could have saved itself a lot of funds being used in the treatment of citizens if it had given some attention to the question of cleanliness and hygiene. The fourth reason is the magnitude of the damage that might have befallen the society as a result of the unhygienic food. The society's productive capacity will dwindle and its public health will regress. The illness will usually slow down the process of education, development and work. This will have a catastrophic effect on our progress, especially as our development is already deformed. My final question is this. Is this municipal, health and commercial awakening a permanent matter or is it just a passing wave that may soon hit a rock and vanish? Do we have to dream of a better life and future or will these government departments go back to their usual sleep? We need our officials to give reasons for hope and optimism, otherwise they should pack up and leave.
