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.
