Dengue needs to be killed where it breeds

More than 60 percent parks, open plots, green belts, uncovered spaces and dug-up roads, which are nestling stagnant water; breading sites of dengue mosquitoes, still await fumigation by anti-dengue pesticides, which is a wake up call for the government to protect 9 million population which is already under severe attack of dengue virus over the last two months. All these open spots are safe heaven for dengue mosquitoes causing its growth. Meanwhile, the situation has worsened as all these places have brimmed over with water after the rain lashed out the city on Tuesday.
The CDGL, PHA, Model Town, Cantonment and DHA administrations have not initiated action on war-footings to flush-out stagnant rain water from parks, plots and open spaces. Moreover, they have not bothered to apply pesticides through spray and fumigation on such sensitive spots.
A senior official in CDGL told Pakistan Today that massive fumigation and chemical spray to hold dengue in check was misdirected and unplanned despite their continuation since last month. He said that CDGL, PHA, Cantonment, Model Town and DHA administrations had more than 1,300 parks besides numerous open plots and green belts. So much so DHA, Cantonment and CDGL also pocketed golf courses, he added.
“Despite the fact dengue breeds on clean water, golf courses, parks and others open locations are moisturised with clean water in bulk. Artificial lakes in recreational sites and golf clubs are not drained out. Ultimately the still water at such spots transformed into dengue breeding factories. All the authorities concerned just focused on streets and households units and ignored open sites. Later they moved towards them but it was too late to react,” he said. This was one of the major reasons behind outbreak of dengue virus in this year, CDGL official claimed.
PHA Additional DG Captain (r) Usman Younis said that during Ramadan, spay and fogging could not be carried out up to the mark in the morning and before evening (ideal time for the breeding of dengue) due to staff’s involvement in Sehri and Iftari. However, now action would be taken at full throttle, he claimed. He observed that when it rained, the efficacy of pesticides fizzled out. “The rain is also a stumbling block in our efforts to check the epidemic,” he added.
Walton Cantonment Board Chief Sanitation Inspector Syed Fiaz Shabir said that WCB had fumigated all parks and open spaces a number of time. In collaboration with CDGL on August 23, 27 and September 3, we used four fogging machines and made many rounds of fumigation. However, unless public changed its behaviour to stop accumulation of water in its proximity, fumigation was useless, Fiaz opined.
Model Town Resident Association President Amir Azam Bakht said that besides parks located in every bloc, roads in K, P, E blocs had been dug up for six months. Since the onset of monsoon, all these places were heavily filled with water and let dengue to grow abundantly, he added. He blamed administration for turning a blind eye to the issue.
DHA spokesman Tajamul Hussain denied accumulation of rain water at open plots, green belts and parks. He said that DHA maintenance branch was proactive to remove rain water forthwith and doing maximum fogging everywhere. He said that pamphlets to keep people abreast about precaution measures had been distributed as another solution to avoid dengue growth in the society.
The Punjab Health Department spokesman said that dengue was a mosquito which grew on water, therefore, people should not let water accumulate in their houses.