DCC not killing mosquitoes

Mosquito menace has greatly increased over the last one month in the absence of effective anti-mosquito drive by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), causing sufferings to residents of the capital.
People in different areas of the city said the DCC made little efforts to combat mosquito menace in their localities for about a month. The areas include Mirpur, Pallabi, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Mohammadpur, Uttara, Moghbazar, Rampura, Basabo, Madartek and Gandaria.
DCC officials however claimed they are regularly conducting mosquito eradication drive using larvicide, but shortage of adulticide for the last one week has affected the drive.
The DCC now has a stock of around 9,500 litres of adulticide for use only in 'specific areas' and for other emergency uses, said one official.
Larvicide destroys larva and egg of mosquito, and adulticide kills adult mosquito.
The DCC sought 4.34 lakh litres of adulticide for the current fiscal year but the authorities concerned supplied only 50,000 litres in October, officials mentioned. They attributed this to bureaucratic tangles.
Contacted, DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka admitted mosquito menace is on the rise, and said efforts are on to tackle this.
On the shortage of adulticide, he said they are going to get 25,000 litres of it within a few days. This will solve the problem for a certain time.
Procurement of more adulticide is in process to solve the solve the problem totally, the mayor added.
Other sources in the DCC said it will take two more weeks to get 25,000 litres of adulticide.
There are allegations that spraying of larvicide in different areas has not yielded desired results as field level workers of the DCC did do not do their job properly.
This happened as officials responsible for monitoring field workers' activities showed reluctance to do so on various excuses like lack of transport and allowances.
Khoka said steps are being taken to strengthen monitoring of the field level work.
One official said shortage of manpower is also a reason for the failure to combat mosquito menace. At least 10 field level staff are needed for an effective drive in each DCC ward but there are only five-six now.
The corporation has 564 staff for the field level work using 390 fogger machines, 532 hand sprayers, 50 wheel-mounted machines, 6 ULV and 8 power sprayers.
Describing the sufferings due to increasing mosquito menace, a resident of Section-12 of Pallabi, Nayan, said, "I moved to the sixth floor of a rented flat from the ground floor to save my family members from mosquito bite, but it did not work."
A resident of Moghbazar, Tito, said, " I use both mosquito killing coil and hand spray at a time but that cannot save us from mosquito bite. So, we have to use mosquito net just after evening."
Meanwhile, sales of coil and hand spray have gone up several times, shopkeepers said.