El Niño preparedness: Should we clean drains in time, or, on time?

DAR ES SALAAM: ALL the five news items appearing on page 13 of the Daily Blog of 17 September, had the predicted super El Niño in mind. Here they are: “Dar’s Keko strengthens flood preparedness plan”; “Chalinze launches early flood readiness campaign”; “Masauni urges ozone-friendly product choices”; “Zanzibar taps religious leaders for El Niño awareness”; and, “Geita launches five-day El Niño cleanup”. In Geita, the District Commissioner is reported to have launched a fiveday El Niño preparedness campaign and saying, inter alia: “There will be no blocked waterway that ‘we will be left unattended’”.

In the foregoing sentence, the pronoun “we” is redundant; so, I would go for. “There will be no blocked waterway that ‘will be left unattended’”. However, should you insist that the pronoun “we” appears in the sentence, the following version is recommended: “There will be no blocked waterway that ‘we will leave unattended’”.

The DC is reported to have: “directed local authorities to ensure waste collection contractors remove garbage from residential areas ‘on time’ to prevent drainage channels from becoming blocked”. The decision whether to use “on time”, or go for, “in time”, can be tricky.

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“On time” is about punctuality. The phrase is used when a person arrives, or an event takes place, at the exact planned time. It is saddening to hear that many of us Africans arrive late for events. We do not keep time, meaning, we do not arrive on time. On the other hand, “in time” means, “soon enough, or before something happens, or ends”. Like in “he arrived in time for the closing ceremony”.

Much as Africans are known for not keeping time, they tend to arrive in time, when catching a plane. There are no excuses, no traffic jams. Planes tend to leave on time, so, you must arrive at the airport in time, to check in. So, with regard to El Niño preparedness, should we go for “on time” as is quoted above in the case of Geita, or should we go for “in time”? It should be “in time”.

The sentence now reads as follows: The DC “directed local authorities to ensure waste collection contractors remove garbage from residential areas ‘in time’ (not ‘on time’) to prevent drainage channels from becoming blocked”. The manager of the Road Authority in Geita is reported to have made a plea: “We urge those living near waterways ‘not to block them’ because ‘doing so’ also helps reduce flooding in residential areas”.

A person reading the plea in a hurry will relate “doing so”, with “blocking waterways” and will be left wondering how can such an action help with reducing flooding. To be fair to the writer, the phrase used was not: “blocking the waterways”, but “not blocking the waterways”. Such sentence construction could be confusing, negative in one part, positive in another. It is best if the writer adopted positivity throughout. I would go for:

“We urge those living near waterways ‘to keep them clear (or, clean)’ because ‘doing so’ also helps reduce flooding in residential areas”. It is El Niño preparedness in the City of Dodoma as well, as can be gauged from this news item in the Daily Blog (17 September) titled: “Dodoma roads ‘face’ November completion deadline” and attributed to the Dodoma Regional Commissioner.

I found myself perplexed as to why the writer chose to use the verb “face”, which in these circumstances means: “To confront or accept an unpleasant fact, challenge, or future prospect”. To complete road works “before November this year as preparations intensify for the expected El Niño rains” is not an unpleasant fact, much as the contractors engaged to do so, may face the music if they fail to beat the deadline.

I would therefore reformulate: “Dodoma roads ‘face’ November completion deadline”, into “Dodoma roads completion deadline set for November”. Have a pleasant weekend. lusuggakironde@gmail.com