With summer just weeks away, people in certain parts of the capital are finding it hard to deal with mosquito nuisance.
The presence of a large number of rubbish bins and drains clogged with waste have been said to be responsible for the unbridled reproduction of mosquitoes, though officials of two city corporations in Dhaka have remained indifferent to this snag.
Residents of some of the localities in Dhaka claim that the problem has got worse lately, hampering their daily lives. It has reached to such an extent that staying indoors without using mosquito repellent coil or liquid even during the daytime has virtually become impossible.
“There have been an increase in mosquitoes and those are preventing people from having a sound sleep. Poor drainage system has contributed to the breeding of mosquitoes,” said Amirul Islam, a resident of Badda.
Amirul said the city corporation authorities were turning a blind eye to the problem. He lashed out at the city corporation authorities for the irregularity of mosquito-killing drives, adding that he had not seen any city corporation staff spraying insecticide in his area regularly.
Like Amirul, many residents of Old Dhaka, Azimpur, Rayer Bazar, Mohammadpur, Shewrapara, Uttara, Kalabagan, Shukrabad, Farmgate, Nakhalpara and Tejgaon told the Dhaka Tribune that the mosquito nuisance was driving them crazy every day.
Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) officials have, however, claimed that they run mosquito-killing drives according to their annual routine programmes during the breeding season, which begins in November and continues till January.
DSCC Chief Health Officer Brigadier General M Abdullah-Al-Harun admitted that the nuisance was on the rise and that they had received complaints in this regard from city dwellers.
“This is the time in the year when people are plagued by an increase in the number of mosquitoes. Our mosquito-killing drive is on and hopefully, we will be able to deal with the problem within 2-3 days. Two sorts of pesticides – larvicide and adulticide – are being used to control mosquitoes,” Harun explained to the Dhaka Tribune.
“Between 8am and 11am, we are using larvicide to check the development of mosquito larvae while adulticide is being sprayed in the evening to control adult mosquitoes,” he said.
In reply to a question, the DSCC Chief Health Officer said the quality and effectiveness of pesticides was beyond question.
DNCC Chief Health Officer Brigadier General KM Masud Hasan, however, could not be reached for comment as he was on leave.
Sources say DNCC and DSCC authorities have allocated around Tk23.5 crore for the mosquito-killing drive, with DSCC allocating Tk14.5 crore and DNCC around Tk9 crore.
