Praying mosquito away!
While residents of Rajshahi city are facing a severe mosquito problem, the Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has come up with the perfect plan to solve the crisis -- praying.
These deadly insects have made the city corporation so helpless that they are desperately hoping for a storm or rain in order to get rid of the mosquito menace that started from the middle of February.
To the city dweller's relief, a thunder storm swept over the city and its surrounding areas last Sunday night. And, the much-awaited rain followed, cleaning some of the mosquito larvae from the city drains, water bodies and croplands.
But, within a couple of days after the rain, mosquitoes struck back.
Despite the “temporary” relief, this season's mosquito menace remains the worst as the RCC is facing a financial hardship to carry out its anti-mosquito drives properly, while the residents continue to bear the brunt.
Moreover, the budget the corporation allocated this year for controlling mosquitoes is the lowest in the last five years.
“We could not buy sufficient adulticide [an insecticide used to kill adult insects] for destroying adult mosquitoes…,” said Rabiul Alam Milu, chairman of the corporation's standing committee on waste management and conservancy.
He said they were allocated Tk 20 lakh against the required Tk 2 crore for carrying out anti-mosquito operations this season. They have received only Tk 3 lakh so far, said Milu.
Against the required minimum of Tk 2 crore, in 2016-17, the conservancy department received Tk 16.22 lakh. It was Tk 50.51 lakh in 2015-16 year while Tk 49 lakh in 2014-15. In 2013-14 fiscal, it was Tk 54.19 lakh.
“How will the authorities allocate funds when there is none,” said Milu, also a ward councillor. “We tried to control mosquitoes by spraying low-cost larvicide, petrol and kerosene in stagnant water bodies with the money we had.”
“This is not enough,” he admitted. “What else can we do with such a poor budget? Now, we can only hope for storms and rain…”
The fund constraints surfaced after the government's annual allocation of fund for the RCC has been reduced to Tk 10 crore from Tk 30 crore a few years back, said Ashraful Haque, chief engineer of RCC.
“For that reason, we are unable to allocate more for controlling mosquitoes,” he added.
The corporation is also in short of fogger machines. Instead of the required 120 fogger machines, they are working with only 30, said Sheikh Md Mamun, chief conservancy officer of the corporation. “Those machines are also around 20 years old.”
“Finding no other options, at times, we hire machines from other government agencies,” he said.
Mosquitoes usually start growing in stagnant water during a period from late October to November and from February to March, said Prof ABM Mohsin, a fisheries department teacher of Rajshahi University.
“If the corporation fails to take proper measures during that period, containing mosquitoes becomes extremely difficult,” he said.
He said mosquito menace is acute in Rajshahi city due to cultivation of irri paddy on marshlands and dense mango orchards around the city.
In addition, a lack of cleaning drives such as cleaning of ponds, water bodies and drains, and a poor garbage and sewerage management, has turned the city into a fertile ground for mosquito breeding.
Meanwhile, city dwellers continue to fight the battle by themselves.
“Coils and electronic devices can hardly control the menace,” said Mohammad Shahin, a resident of Khirshintikor area. “I use mosquito nets even during the day to protect my family.”
But Shahin, a trader by profession, remains worried about his cattle. “I burn coils at the cow-shed, which is also risky. But what else can I do?”
“The Sunday night's storm reduced the mosquito severity a bit. But, it's not a solution,” he said.
Many of the residents in the area said they burn dhups (incense) and coconut fibres to generate smoke for driving mosquitoes away.
“Mosquitoes bite all day. It's very hard to concentrate on anything due to the attack,” said Sanaul Haque, a college teacher of Sagarpara.
Abdus Sattar of Salbagan area said, “My children feel sick due to burning coils and spraying insecticide all the time.”
This correspondent also spoke with many of the residents from Nawdapara, Rajshahi University area, Budpara and Dingadoba among other areas. All of them said that mosquito menace has intensified over the years due to a lack of initiative taken by the city corporation.
Be it day or night, mosquitoes seem to lurk everywhere -- residences, offices, classrooms, streets and fields, they added.
When asked, Mosaddek Hossain Bulbul, mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation, said, “The city corporation would use its revenue funds for tackling the mosquito menace.”
“Facing all our limitations, we would continue the anti-mosquito drives,” he said. “We will start our drives in full swing as soon as the budding and flowering of the mangoes complete, so that those are not affected.”
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