DCC's mosquito control drive lacks monitoring

Mosquito menace now tops as one of the major problems in the capital since Dhaka City Corporation's (DCC) mosquito control programme is limping due to lack of monitoring.
Life in the capital is severely perturbed due to mosquitoes taking over after dark and even during the days, citizens of different areas say.
Residents from different areas including Pallabi, Mirpur, Kazipara, Senpara Parbata, Shewrapara, Jatrabari, Moghbazar, Malibagh, Khilgaon, Rampura, Basabo, Madartek, Mohammadpur, Lalmatia, Kathalbagan, Shahjahanpur, Gandaria, Sutrapur and Uttara complained of not noticing any DCC pest control activity over the last one month.
A vector of many infectious diseases, mosquito remains the host of many viruses and parasites causing malaria, dengue, filaria and other diseases.
Mosquito bites make the life unbearable indoors and outdoors.
Students, especially SSC candidates, are also the victims of biting and annoyance.
Mintu, a resident of Basabo said, due to the lack of DCC's pest control activity they have to depend on the mosquito repellent coils and nets to protect themselves from mosquito bites.
”Even the repellent coils and sprays often fail to ensure relief and eventually I have to hold myself inside the mosquito net right after dark," said Moniruzzaman, a resident of Mirpur section-12.
"Sleeping without mosquito net is unimaginable at night. We are not also free from stings during the days," said Noorjahan, a resident of Gandaria.
The sale of mosquito coils and hand spray has increased three times during the last month, said Faruk, a shopkeeper of Pallabi.
An official of DCC said a large number of men engaged in spraying do not carry out their duties properly and there is a lack of monitoring on the DCC's part.
Most of the water bodies, the breeding grounds of mosquitoes, also need to be taken care of although Tk 89.5 lakh have already been spent on cleaning the city between July 2008 and January 2009, he said.
The DCC is going to launch a two-week-long crash programme in all the 90 wards under DCC from today (Wednesday), he said.
All the wards will come under two rounds of adulticiding and larviciding during this programme, said Chief Entomologist of DCC Nasim-us-Seraj.
He said they have ample larvicide but the adulticide is just enough to execute the crash programme.
"We will buy one lakh litre of adulticide within a month and issue a work order in a couple of days," he added.
The chief entomologist said they would free the clogged drains under the crash programme and also use oily larviciding in different water bodies and sewer lines to destroy the breeding grounds.
He also said DCC has a mosquito-control crew of 606 people, 309 foggers, 572 hand sprays, 44 wheel mounted sprayers, 14 ULVs and nine Napsak power sprayers which will be used during the crash programme.
Experts said much of modern mosquito control is no longer dependent on pesticides but specialised organisms that eat mosquitoes, or infect them with a disease that kills them. Measure of this kind can be introduced in our country keeping environmental pollution in mind, they suggested.