ANOTHER IMPENDING MOSQUITO ATTACK

In a worrying development, a report in this daily said that experts are warning of a record increase in Culex mosquitoe population next month. What is even more concerning is that the city corporations that are mainly responsible for controlling the menace seem to have become lax in their mosquito fighting efforts after the mayoral elections. We do not need to point out the results of such delays and how dangerous an increase in mosquito population will be in terms of spreading diseases like dengue, chikungunya, malaria, filaria and other deadly diseases.   

Two recent surveys—one by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and another by a team of researchers from Jahangirnagar University—have found that the mosquito population density will multiply in the next two weeks. Such findings are ominous for such a densely populated city like Dhaka where disease spreads like wildfire. After last year's experience with dengue, which caused numerous deaths and thousands getting infected, it would have been logical for the city corporations to take preventive measures well in advance this time around. But as many city-dwellers have stated, there has been very little initiative from the city corporations so far, especially after the elections. Such laxity is highly irresponsible as we all know that mosquitoes breed very fast and become very difficult to control after the larvae have hatched. So what have the city corporations been waiting for? Why hasn't there been fogging in various localities? Why have not the breeding grounds of mosquitoes, like the waterbodies, in the city been cleaned out?

It has been said that there is an acute shortage of manpower and logistics to carry out adequate drives. A former ward councillor said that there are three people in his ward for fogging and spraying, and that at least 15 people would be required to do the job properly. He further said that he had submitted a request to the DSCC for the required equipment and manpower six months ago, but to no avail. This seems to be the case in many other wards. How can the city corporations sit on such requests that literally can save lives?

The DSCC has announced a weeklong crash programme to identify and destroy breeding grounds and the DNCC has apparently started a two-week crash programme for the same purpose. Why couldn't they have started this months ago when the dengue season was at its peak and experts had already warned of a resurgence of disease-carrying mosquitoes in the months to come?

We hope that these crash programmes do not prove to be too little, too late—something, it seems, our city corporations have been afflicted with for a long time.