The Hindu 26.06.2013
Private malaria workers to battle mosquitoes
This year, the Chennai Corporation has a new strategy to deal with the annual mosquito menace and the diseases it causes.
Private
malaria workers will be deployed in zones along the Adyar River, to
cope with the rising mosquito densities from July to October. The
workers will carry out mosquito control operations — they will desilt
drains, rid the area of breeding sources, fog the locality and check
overhead tanks in households.
Adyar has been chosen
as the pilot area as it sees a rise in mosquito density every year, and
reports the maximum number of mosquito-related diseases such as malaria
and dengue.
On Wednesday, the Corporation Council is
likely to pass a resolution on using the services of 150 private workers
for wards 170 to 182. The wards cover 1.33 lakh households.
These
150 workers will be in addition to the 142 permanent malaria workers
who already carry out mosquito control operations along the Adyar River.
The initiative is likely to be extended to other zones where the
mosquito density is of alarming proportions.
“The number of permanent malaria workers is just not enough,” said a Corporation official.
“The
recent drive to clear debris in the Adyar River has reduced the
mosquito density in our ward. But some neighbourhoods continue to report
large numbers of mosquitoes. The additional malaria workers will help
residents considerably,” said S. Murugan, councillor of ward 177.
The
civic body has spent crores of rupees cleaning the Adyar River and the
Buckingham Canal in a bid to control mosquito breeding this year.
The
initiative started on March 18. Officials said it had considerably
decreased mosquito breeding, leading to a reduction in the adult density
of mosquitoes from 40 in May 2012 to 8 this year. The larval density
too, has reduced from 6 in May 2012 to 1 in 2013.
However,
the intermittent rains and water scarcity this month are likely to lead
to artificial and natural mosquito breeding grounds cropping up over
the next few months. This may pose a serious challenge to mosquito
control operations, an official said.
The private malaria workers will start work on July 1.