The Hindu 11.10.2014
Cleanliness drive begins
The Salem Corporation has intensified its campaign for dengue prevention and control in the wake of monsoon season.
Over
225 people, including workers of the malaria eradication programme,
members of women self-help groups, have been involved in vigorous
campaigning for the past few days to check dengue. The focus of the
measures is on source reduction and fogging operation.
The
corporation has mobilised these workers to conduct house-to-house
survey for gathering information and also for mass education programme
to contain the disease in the city limits.
Special
teams formed by K.V. Arjun Kumar, City Health Officer, have been
visiting the residences in all the four zonal divisions of the
corporation — Hasthampatti, Ammapettai, Sooramangalam and Kondalampatti
to identify the breeding places of mosquitoes and destroy it and create
awareness among people on the simple steps to be followed to eradicate
the disease.
In its search for measures to prevent
this disease, the civic body decided to attack the problem at its roots
and has trained its guns on the source — the household water storage
facilities.
The special teams visit every house and
create awareness on sanitation. Focus is also on reducing the number of
potential breeding grounds for the dengue-carrying Aedes mosquitoes,
which usually thrive on stagnant water on discarded tyres, indoor plant
pots, grinding stones, coconut shells, broken utensils and bottles, old
plastic bags, and drainages.
They identify the old
tyres, and other articles which store waste water, remove them from the
premises instantly and deposit them in the corporation lorry that
follows.
Fogging machines have been pressed into
service and the fogging operation is carried out inside the houses. This
will be a continuous operation, Corporation sources told
The Hindu
on Friday.
The initiative of the Corporation has been well received by the local people.