Reza Mahmud :
The Dhaka city dwellers from almost every ward have been suffering from serious mosquito menace due to the alleged lack of timely measures taken by the two city corporations.
They are not getting respite from fear of the mosquito borne diseases like dengu and chikunguniya, though the city corporations earlier announced tougher actions to eliminate the issue.
The city dwellers blamed that the employees are only spraying mosquito repellent along the main roads ignoring lanes and stagnant water bodies. There are also allegation of spraying low quality medicines. So, the mosquito coil, aerosol spray and electric bat are failing to give relief to the dwellers from the menace.
“There are huge mosquitoes in the whole area of Gendaria. We cannot get respite from mosquito menace, though the city corporation earlier announced serious actions to eliminate it. The employees have seen to spray mosquito repellent along the main roads, but they did not spray that in the lanes and by-lanes where most of the residents are resided. This caused sharp increase of mosquitoes,” said Abul Hossain, the Proprietor of Medicine Point, at Satish Sarkar Road, Gendaria in the city.
Residents from different other areas said the stagnant water bodies like ponds, drains, canals and lakes remain unclean for months. Those also stay out of spraying mosquito repellent, which made the problem more serious.
According to corporation sources, the authorities of both the Dhaka North and South City Corporations are taking measures to eliminate mosquitoes from their jurisdictions.
According to official data, the DSCC has allocated Tk 16.80 crore and the DNCC Tk 20 crore for the current fiscal (2017-18) to eliminate mosquito.
DSCC Mayor Muhammad Sayeed Khokon has recently launched an elaborate programme to kill mosquitoes under his corporation’s jurisdiction. He formally launched the programme using a fogger machine and sprayed mosquito repellents from the Institute of Fine Arts.
The Mayor said, “We cautioned citizens to remain alert against chikungunya and urged them to clean bushes and water containers from their surrounding areas where Aedes mosquitoes breed.
Apart from this, DNCC have also started mosquito elimination crash programme from Gulshan. The officials of the DNCC led by panel Mayor Osman Gani formally launched the programme on Tuesday.
The both city corporations have opened hotlines to help eliminate mosquitoes. But the citizens alleged that they have no information about those hotlines.
“We do not no about the hotlines. No one informed us about that,” said Shafiul Alam, a resident of Syedabad.
Citizens alleged that the employees liable to spray mosquito repellents are not taking the initiatives honestly, which is causing unbearable mosquito menace in the city.
Sources said the aedes mosquitoes are found in the city before the rainy season. The aedes are carrier of chikunguniya and dengue diseases. That is why the citizens are panicked as they have been experiencing horrific situation during the last few years from those mosquito borne diseases.
The city residents are sufferings everywhere – at home, schools, offices, business places and markets because of mosquito menace.
“There are unbearable situation due to huge numbers of mosquitoes in Elephant Road, Hatir pool, Free School Street and Bhuter Goli areas and made the lives of people of the area measurable,” said Mosharraf Hossain, a private job holder from the area.
Meanwhile, leaders and workers of different organizations formed a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club on Saturday demanding elimination of mosquitoes from the city.
Ashraf Ali, Chairman of Gonotantrik Mukti Andolon and Moshiur Rahman, President of Nagorik Unnoyan Forum, spoke to the occasion.
