The Hindu        15.06.2011

Awareness campaign to fight mosquito menace in city

Staff Reporter

During a visit to inspect anti-larval operations at Gulabithota canal bund colony on Tuesday, Mr. Ravi Babu said that the storage tanks and stagnant water holdings in houses were proving to be breeding grounds for mosquitoes and the participation of the public should there on a large scale to fight this.

The municipal corporation staff showed to him how water holding containers in some residences were becoming breeding places for larvae.

Watching the intensity of the problem, Mr. Ravi Babu advised the people to store only enough quantities of water to meet their daily requirements and not go beyond their needs. He said that the growth of larvae was very strong in stored water and it would be better to prevent the outbreak of disease by stopping the growth of mosquitoes at the larval stage itself.

He said that diseases such as malaria, dengue and diarrhoea would spread because of the mosquito bite and the health staff should actively participate in the campaign to raise awareness on this among the public.

The water containers should be emptied and cleaned once every week and they should also be dried thoroughly to remove any scope for the growth of the mosquito larvae. For this, every Friday should be observed as a dry day in every house.

Stating that stagnation was the major problem in this issue, Mr. Ravi Babu directed the sanitation and public health staff to make sure that there would be no standing water in the drains in residential localities and that there should be no blockages in the drainage system.

The Commissioner ordered for shifting of interested residents to the houses allotted to them under JNNURM scheme. Malaria technical officer Rama Rao and other staff were present during the visit.