With the lengthy monsoon this year, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) have not been able to bring the capital’s mosquito problem completely under control, leaving residents vulnerable to the threat of dengue and malaria.
According to data updated yesterday by the Control Room of the Directorate General for Health Services (DGHS), 2,322 patients had been infected with dengue in the capital so far this year.
Despite Tk14 crore allocated by the DNCC and Tk12 crore earmarked by the DSCC for mosquito control in FY2015-16, residents complained that the two city corporations had not done enough to tackle the public health menace.
The DGHS data seems to suggest that dengue infections had spiked in September but was declining in October, but recorded infections in 2015 were clearly higher than in previous years.
A resident of Lalbagh, who asked not to be named, said: “For several years there were no ward councillors so the job was not done properly. But this year there are councillors … what are they doing?”
“City corporation staff sprayed insecticides in the area over a month ago. But I have not seen them spraying the city recently,” she said, describing the mosquito problem as “unbearable.”
According to the two city corporations, the Health Department is responsible for pest control. Their responsibilities include locating mosquito breeding grounds, destroying larva and spraying larvicides in the morning and adulticides in the evening.
They are also supposed to drain ponds and marshes, locate dengue patients from hospital records and destroy breeding grounds near their homes.
Sabbir Ahmed, a resident of Rupnagar in Mirpur said: “The number of mosquitoes seems to have risen over the last two months, but I do not see an aggressive response.”
He said this year the rainy season was longer than in previous years so the authorities should take extra care to tackle mosquito breeding.
City officials of both corporations denied allegations that their pest control efforts had been lax, saying mosquito control drives were routinely conducted during the breeding season, which begins in October and continues until January.
They said two types of pesticides – larvicides and adulticides – are used to control mosquitoes.
Larvicides are applied between 8am and 11am to halt the growth of mosquito larvae while adulticides are sprayed between 5pm and 7pm to exterminate adult mosquitoes, the officials said.
When contacted, DNCC Chief Health Officer Brig Gen AKM Masood Ahsan told the Dhaka Tribune that steps, including the Crush Programme, have been implemented.
“We have seen news reports of the increase in dengue infections and have directed our zonal offices to spray insecticides in every part of the city,” he said.
DSCC Chief Health Officer Brig Gen Md Mahbubur Rahman said: “We have started the Crush Programme and hope that the mosquito population will be eliminated very rapidly.”
Residents have complained of a rise in mosquitoes in the Mirpur, Kalyanpur, Old Dhaka, Tejkunipara, Jatrabari, Dholaikhal, Shanir Ankhra, Kamrangirchar, Hazaribagh, Badda, Rampura, Moghbazar, Mohakhali and Kamalapur areas of the capital.