Reza Mahmud :
Mosquito bite has made the life of the city residents painful and the other hand there is little effort to check the breeding.
Sources said that budgets allocated for wiping out mosquitoes were lying idle.
“We did not get respite from the mosquito bite even in the broad day light. Our children in schools too cannot escape bite and cannot study attentively without using mosquito net or burning mosquito coils. But the mosquito net is uneasy to use at day time while coils have unpleasant smell, which is also harmful,” said, Tahmina Tabassum, a housewife from Wari.
The residents of Dhaka North City Corporation areas also have stated the same experience.
“Mosquito menace has become a big problem for us as we have to suffer from the mosquito bite day and night. When the women are cooking, the mosquitoes irritate. The children are facing the same problem at schools and homes and people in the offices,” said Mahfuz Alamin, a senior citizen from Uttara in DNCC area.
“Although the problem becomes severe, the city corporation is yet to take any measure to ease the sufferings,” he said.
People from different walks of life alleged that both of the city corporations are spending lots of money in the name of mosquito killing.
The officials said that the Dhaka South City Corporation sanctioned Tk 11.50 crore and Dhaka North gave Tk 26.25 crore in the current fiscal year’s budget for mosquito killings.
When contacted, the Chief Executive Officer of DSCC Khan Mohammad Billal told The New Nation, “It is a fact that the mosquito breeding is on rise. But it is also true that we are not sitting idle. The employees of city corporation are trying heart and soul to kill mosquitoes. They are carrying fog machines and spreading pesticides in every areas.”
The Chief Health Officer of DNCC Brigadier General SM Saleh Bhuiyan told The New Nation, “The mosquito bite increases due to the weather changing. The officials are trying honestly to tackle the problems. We are clearing drains and water bodies in our areas.”
The city dwellers in different areas said that the fog machines could not give them respite.
“In the past, we saw that after spreading medicines by fog machines we get relief for at least few days. But today the mosquitoes remain in actions hours after fog machines spread medicines,” said, Bubul Ahmed, an government officials.
DSCC Chief Executive Officer said, “Sometime the pesticides are found less powerful, which may be one of the causes to increase mosquitoes. But we are honestly trying to curb the problem.”
The Chief Health Officer of DNCC assured that there was no fear of infection of any disease from the mosquito bite in this time.
Besides, some officials of the both city corporations said wishing not to be named that some of their dishonest colleagues were not properly using pesticides.
The officials also said, a portion of the city residents also are partially liable of uncontrolled mosquitoes breeding. Because some of them use to throw waste in drains. The stagnant water of the drains and elsewhere caused enormous breeding of mosquitoes.
