The Hindu 04.09.2013
Corporation fishing for a magic solution
Tiruchirapalli City Corporation will use gambusia, a
fish species, “oil balls”, and abate solution as larvicides to check
mosquito breeding in households and open places as part of its dengue
prevention measures in the city.
While the fish will
be let out in the open and abandoned wells, “oil balls” (a mixture of
waste engine oil and saw dust packed in small gunny bags) which is said
to act as an effective larvicide, would be used in open drains.
Abate
solution, also a larvicide, will be applied in water tanks and sumps in
households. This apart, anti-mosquito fogging would be intensified,
Corporation Commissioner V.P. Thandapani told
The Hindu
.
The civic body kicked off a mass cleaning campaign to weed out mosquito breeding sources at households on Tuesday.
The
corporation and other local bodies in the district were directed to
take up the three-day simultaneous cleaning exercise by Collector
Jayashree Muralidharan to prevent breeding of the dengue causing
aedes aegypti
mosquitoes.
In Tiruchi, the corporation staff and
nursing students fanned out to various areas to remove discarded plastic
cups, tyres, flower pots, and other containers where rainwater could
stagnate and turn a breeding ground for the mosquitoes.
The
exercise was flagged off by R. Manoharan, Chief Whip in the Legislative
Assembly, A. Jaya, Mayor, and Mr. Thandapani in different parts of the
city.
About 850 nursing students will join
corporation workers to take up the door-to-door campaign and apply abate
solutions in water tanks and sumps. They will distribute pamphlets
detailing ways to prevent mosquito breeding in households and other
dengue control measures.
Mr. Thandapani said the
rapid exercise would cover 1.80 lakh households in the city. Four
special teams have been formed in each of the four zones in the city and
each team will cover 3,000 houses a day. Corporation trucks and private
lorries have been deployed to collect the discarded containers and
garbage removed during the campaign. On Tuesday, seven lorry loads of
discarded containers were removed, Mr. Thandapani said.
The
corporation has requested city residents to desist from storing fresh
water in open containers. Drinking water containers should be cleaned
once in two days.