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Public Health / Sanitation

Collect insects, study them: civic body drive to combat rain-related ailments

Thursday, 03 June 2010 10:36 administrator
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Indian Express   03.06.2010

Collect insects, study them: civic body drive to combat rain-related ailments

sharvaripatwa Tags : rain-related ailments research, mumbai Posted: Thu Jun 03 2010, 23:26 hrs

Rain-related ailments

One of the BMC’s insect collectors demonstrates how to collect the sample Ganesh Shirsekar
Mumbai:  As part of its pre-monsoon preparedness, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will send insect collectors to ‘high risk’ areas for identifying and collecting samples of mosquitoes and other insects that spread diseases. The civic body will then run a test on these insects to come up with measures to tackle the rain-related diseases.

As many as 24 insect collectors, who have been trained by a team comprising the state government officials, will visit at least 8-10 areas and collect 10 samples a day. These samples will be tested in the BMC laboratory. The BMC has roped in state entamologists, zonal entamologists and a filaria official to train the collectors.

“This is the first time that such a large insect collectors’ force has been trained and delpoyed in the city,” said Anil Bamne, insecticide officer. The BMC has identified nine high risk wards and each of them has 10 spots from where samples can be collected. Of these, five are fixed spots and five others will be selected randomly.

Areas under the nine high-risk wards include Lower Parel, Worli, Elphinstone, Parel, Sewree, Wadala, Byculla, Mahim, Matunga, Sion, Bandra (W), Khar (W), Santacruz (W), Andheri (E), Malad and Kurla.

These high-risk wards will get utmost attention in terms of staff deployment and anti-malarial measures, said Bamne. “This way we can study the kinds of mosquitoes breeding in a particular area and gauge how harmful they are,” he said.

Meanwhile, the insect collectors are waiting for high-end insect collecting kits which will be provided by the state government, said civic official. These kits are expected to arrive within a week, he said. 

The BMC has also filled 43 vacant posts of Junior Overseer Officers (JOO’s), who will identify and implement measures to tackle the disease. This is important as with the onset of monsoon there is a high risk of water-borne diseases being spread, said Anil Bamne. Meanwhile, the BMC is also planning to hold workshops for private medical practitioners in all wards from the next week.

Our focus will be mainly on the private medical practitioners who work in slum areas and lower income households, said additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar. These measures have been designed after two meetings with the state government officials over the past few weeks, said Mhaiskar. In 2009, around 70% of the deaths caused due to malaria had happened in Mumbai.

Last Updated on Thursday, 03 June 2010 10:39
 

Garbage lifters to go on strike from today

Tuesday, 01 June 2010 05:25 administrator
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The Times of India     01.06.2010

Garbage lifters to go on strike from today

TNN, Jun 1, 2010, 04.35am IST
JAIPUR: Garbage lifters will go on strike from Tuesday owing to non- payment of dues for the past 10 months. Citizens now have yet another woe in the form of stinking neighbourhood and piles of garbage at roadside and at garbage depots across the city's 30 wards. However, JMC top brass, assured that alternative arrangements would be made but many wonder how the civic body would cope with this new crisis.

The proposed strike would adversely affect the entire Walled City and six wards of the Civil Lines zones. Despite parleys for hours at the JMC headquarters on Monday between the JMC top brasses and the contractors union, no solution was reached. Rakesh Yadav, a contractor who has been running from pillar to post to get his dues of over Rs 5 crores said the contractors can not do without pyment any longer.

"We can not force the labours to go hungry for months. Now the mayor and the CEO want us wait for another few months without payment." said Yadav.

He questioned how the contractors could continue with their job of lifting and transporting the garbage to the landfill sites.

As the heritage contractor's strike entered 140th day the strike called by the garbage contractors would virtually stall the city's civic services fear most of the residents. For past one year neither any repair work nor any new development project has taken off, the littered garbage all across the road at deports would make the air stale. The chief executive officer(CEO) RP Jain told toi that since the JMC does lift and transport the garbage from the 46 wards of the city , the strike would have no impact. " We would make an effective arrangement" said he.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 August 2010 11:00
 

CMC meet: clearing of drains highlighted

Tuesday, 01 June 2010 04:40 administrator
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The Hindu      01.06.2010

CMC meet: clearing of drains highlighted

Staff Correspondent

‘It has already been taken up in many places'

New dam proposed to be built across

Swarna river

Vehicle parking issue said to have been taken up with RTA

Udupi: The issue of clearing silt from stormwater drains dominated the general body meeting of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) here on Monday.

Jayananda, councillor, said that the removal of silt from the stormwater drains had not been taken up in the 18 municipal wards on the outskirts of the city, even as the monsoon was likely to set in in a week. The repair of roads had not been taken up. The condition of roads would become worse during the rainy season, he said.

It was not enough if the removal of silt was taken up in the wards lying in the heart of the city. As many as 18 wards were on the outskirts and they too should be given equal importance, he said.

Amrita Krishnamurthy and Anandi said that removal of silt from the drains along the narrow roads in some wards had to be done manually. Earthmovers were helpful only on broad roads, they said.

Meenakshi Bannanje said that removal of silt from the Kalmady rivulet should be taken up. Dirty water had got accumulated in the Kalmady vented dam, she said.

CMC president Dinakar Shetty said that priority had been given to removal of silt from the Kalsank stormwater drain, as most of the rainwater flowed through that drain. The removal of silt from the stormwater drains between the Sharada Mantapa and Kalsank and in the Badagabettu are had been completed.

Work was under way on the drains between Sharada Hotel bypass and Kodavoor. The removal of silt from the drains in other wards of the city too was under way, he said.

Drinking water

When councillor M.R. Pai sought to know about the drinking water position, CMC Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak said that water in the Baje and Shiroor vented dams would last for a month. Mr. Shetty said that the CMC was planning to build a new dam across Swarna river as the demand for drinking water was expected to increase in the coming years. Councillor Naveen Bhandari wanted to know why parking of vehicles was allowed on the stretch between the Diana Circle and service bus-stand road and disallowed on the Taluk Office-Diana Circle Road stretch. Mr. Shetty said that the matter had been taken up with the Regional Transport Authority and the Traffic Police. Councillor Panduranga Malpe said that trucks carrying fish should not be allowed to drop the wastewater along the road at Malpe. This had made the stretch jittery and resulted in a lot of accidents happening there, involving motorcycles.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 June 2010 04:42
 
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