The Hindu 23.02.2013
Free mosquito nets for poor residents
The civic body will distribute free mosquito nets to poor residents living along the city’s waterways.
The Corporation council on Friday passed a resolution to distribute mosquito nets to residents along the 16 minor and major waterways such as the Cooum, Adyar and Buckingham Canal.
According to health department officials, the initiative is likely to prove the most cost-effective way of battling mosquito menace, and in an environment-friendly manner. People who cannot afford repellents are likely to benefit from this scheme.
The move followed reports that fogging operations were not effective in tackling mosquitoes in some areas. The civic body has been carrying out fogging operations in most areas in the city.
Mayor Saidai S. Duraisamy, at the council meeting on Friday, said the proposal to distribute mosquito nets was aimed at protecting people from vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue. The civic body has been struggling to control mosquito menace and vector-borne diseases despite clearing a number of breeding sources such as coconut shells, unused tyres, overhead tanks and sumps.
Over the past few months, the Corporation has been on the lookout for better technology to control malaria-causing Anopheles and dengue-causing Aedes species of mosquitoes.
Even though challenges caused by breeding grounds in over 25,000 unoccupied plots of land, two lakh overhead tanks, 74,526 wells and 65,166 sumps are being tackled by the civic body, reports of vector-borne diseases are relatively high along the waterways.
Fogging operations were not effective in tackling mosquito menace in some areas in the city.
