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Public Health / Sanitation

Authorities still have no specific plans to check spread of dengue

Monday, 25 October 2010 11:07 administrator
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Indian  Express   25.10.2010

Authorities still have no specific plans to check spread of dengue

Surbhi Khyati Tags : health, dengue Posted: Sun Oct 24 2010, 07:18 hrs

Health

Lucknow:  Even as dengue is spreading fast across Lucknow, the district administration and the municipal corporation of the city are yet to formulate plans to prevent water-logging and mosquito germination in stagnant water in the city.

“We have no specific plans for preventing the spread of dengue in the city,” Anil Kumar Sagar, District Magistrate, told The Indian Express.

Earlier, the DM had announced that cleanliness drive in the city will begin from Monday. According to official data, 282 cases of dengue have been reported from Lucknow this year so far — a highest in the last seven years.

Incidentally, dengue is caused by mosquitoes which do not breed in dirty water. Health officials said construction sites become a breeding place for dengue mosquitoes apart from stagnant water in houses. As per the Health department, maximum number of cases of the disease in Lucknow have been reported from Gomti Nagar, Mahanagar and Indira Nagar, where cleanliness and sanitation are not as major a problem as in other parts of the city.

However, malaria, a disease which can be associated with lack of sanitation, has not spread in the city. According to a press release by the state’s Information department, of the 1206 samples tested for malaria since October 17, not a single positive case has been found.

Yet, maintaining that the main cause of spread of virus is garbage dumps and lack of sanitation, Sagar blamed the municipal corporation for not ensuring cleanliness in the city. “There was lack of supervision in maintaining cleanliness by the LMC in various areas of the city. In order to improve the supervision and assist the LMC, we have posted sector officers and zonal officers in the city,” said Sagar, while addressing the media persons on Saturday. Total 125 new sector officers have appointed for supervision in wards. Besides, the city has also been divided in six zones, with a zonal officer in each zone to supervise the sector officer, said Sagar. 

The sector officers will be in-charge of garbage-lifting work as well as water testing in the areas where problems of polluted water persist. According to the DM, 150 areas in Lucknow have been listed as extremely dirty. “As per the norms, city should have more than 7,000 sanitation workers but there are are only 3200 sanitation workers. However, we plan to recruit 1000 new sanitation workers through agencies in a few days,” said Sagar. The new system will be implemented from Monday.

Meanwhile, as per the Information department release, Commissioner Prashant Trivedi, Municipal Commissioner SK Singh and Sagar, following the chief minister’s instructions, reviewed the sanitation work of the city on Saturday.

Last Updated on Monday, 25 October 2010 11:09
 

Another proposed garbage dumping site near Kakori

Monday, 25 October 2010 10:54 administrator
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The Times of India             25.10.2010

Another proposed garbage dumping site near Kakori

LUCKNOW: With the proposed garbage dumping site in Malihabad being unable to obtain the requisite environmental clearance, the search for a new site has been initiated. On Sunday, a host of senior officials from district administration, including Lucknow divisional commissioner, inspected a site on Hardoi Road.

Spreading over an area of around 110 acre, the proposed garbage dumping ground is situated near Kakori. Municipal commissioner Shailesh Kumar Singh said that this site would be the most suitable site as it is essentially a 'usar' (sodic) land. The one in Dussheri Gaon in Malihabad, to note, had come to threaten the famous mango belt of the state, including the Mother tree of Dussheri.

Singh admitted that the LMC has no specified location where it could dump the enormous waste generated in the city. Around 1,500 metric tonnes of garbage generated in the city, is mostly dumped on the roads and other secluded places. A senior municipal official admitted that many a time, the dumpers drive around the city and look for a site away from population. "The dumper empties itself and immediately leaves,'' said a senior municipal official.

Singh said that with the finalising of a new site, the corporation would be in a position to efficiently dump the garbage. "Expect that to happen within a week or so,'' he said.

 

`LMC not solely responsible for health menace'

Monday, 25 October 2010 10:52 administrator
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The Times of India               25.10.2010

`LMC not solely responsible for health menace'

LUCKNOW: The menace of diseases might be raising its ugly head, but that has not deterred authorities from playing a blame game.

Stung by criticism over the functioning of Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) that led to disease outbreak in some localities of the cities, municipal commissioner Shailesh Kumar Singh claimed that "LMC was not solely responsible for the menace''.

"Whatever is happening is not solely because of the corporation,'' Singh said at a press conference called at his camp office, a day after district administration decided to rope in officials from other departments to supervise municipal services in the state capital. The move had put a question mark over LMC functioning.

"It was me who sought assistance from other departments as the utility is too short of staff to deal with the crisis,'' he said. District magistrate A K Sagar had announced roping in of seven additional city magistrates and 125 sector officers in 110 sectors of the state capital to supervise the municipal services.

The municipal commissioner was particularly peeved with health department, which he said was trying to put the onus on the municipality. "Whatever DM said was nothing but briefing done by the district health authorities,'' he said. He said that from now on, LMC would be sending a day-to-day report of the municipal functioning to the DM.

On the instances of diseases that led to deaths of over 50 persons in the state capital within a span of two months, Singh said that none of them were a result of garbage. "They were not water-borne. It's a mystery fever which is causing the deaths,'' he said.

The municipal commissioner did not agree to the fact that dengue had been causing deaths in Khadra. It is not even malaria, he said. "Whatever instances of dengue have been reported are from the posh localities only, because it is there that fresh water stagnates,'' he said.

Statistics gathered by LMC said that the maximum number of dengue cases, 20 of them, have been reported from Gomtinagar. It is followed by Mahanagar and Aliganj -- from where 15 and 14 cases, respectively, have been reported.

He, however, admitted that cleanliness and proper disposal of garbage was still a challenge. Cleaning operations, he said, start at 7.00am and end by 2.00pm. Interestingly, municipal corporation had introduced the concept of night sweeping a few months back which, however, had to be shelved. "There were objections from the public,'' he said.

 
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