Ice making machine and DDT

This news has been read 16679 times!

Life in Kuwait, at the beginning of the fifties, was simple, even for the well-to-do, there was no cold water, no air conditioners, no refrigerators, and few had ceiling fans, and there was a factory to make ice slabs, the only source of cooling.

The drinking water came to us from the Shatt al-Arab in wooden boats, and we got some of the other from the two hearts, or the wells.

The effects and blessings of oil revenues had not yet appeared, and its harbingers came with the start of the government buying homes and properties of citizens within the borders of the capital, and subsequently in other villages and suburbs, such as Jahra, Fahaheel and others.

Seventy or eighty years ago, the government’s interest in education and many other things was distinguished and modern, and much better than it is now, whether in terms of teachers, curricula, or administration.

As students, we felt that concern, and the desire of officials to change our overall conditions for the better, in terms of education, food and health, by taking care of the quality of food that was served to us, the quality and style of what we wore in school, our behavior and hygiene, and even the style and quality of our shoes.

As for now, attention is almost focused on prolonging holidays, stuffing the curricula with sick backward ideas, and recruiting an army of teachers, imbued with political and religious ideas, so that the teaching profession has become, among creative people, repulsive.

The summer months were harsh with all their heat. Then, we did not really miss air conditioners, and the reason was that we did not even know they existed, and man by nature does not demand something that he does not know of, but as soon as it entered our lives, it became very difficult to live without it.

Ceiling or table fans were few, and yet they did a good job, and then they gradually disappeared from our lives completely, with the advent of the modern cooling system.

In order to reduce the temperature in the markets and neighborhoods, the government resorted to spraying it with water from the municipal tanks that roamed the markets and neighborhoods, and we saw the vapor of the sprayed water rising from the dusty ground, and we were having fun running behind those tanks while they were spraying their water, and we were very excited.

In order to get rid of the large amount of flies that were breeding strangely during the summer, the Ministry of Health, or perhaps the municipality, sprayed the markets with DDT to get rid of flies and mosquitoes, with the help of vehicles equipped with a tank of DDT and a generator that converted the liquid into a thick white vapor, shot through a cannon-like nozzle for a distance of ten meters or more.

As children, we were running after those vehicles, and the happy one was the one who succeeded in reaching the throat of the crater and completely disappearing into the white cloud that was behind it. This irritated the others and prompted them to run faster, and as we ran faster it increased our heartbeats, and increased our need for oxygen.

Almost two decades later, the United States banned the use of this substance due to its harmful effects, and we later learned that it is composed of toxic substances used to exterminate insects, and I do not know how our small lungs resisted the harmful health effects of inhaling this substance in such relatively large quantities?

email: [email protected]

By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 16679 times!