Why the dengue fight is lacking sting in Kolkata?
We are doing our best. But we cannot go to people’s houses and clean the inside of their homes. Residents have to clean their homes. Our vector-control workers visit every neighbourhood once a week, said Firhad Hakim.
Atin Ghosh, deputy mayor of Kolkata and head of KMC’s health department:It is not true that vector-control work is not done adequately. There are some wards that are very large, where vector-control workers cannot go back after seven days. But we have a type of larvicide that works for a fortnight. We spray that larvicide in such wards. People expect that we visit each and every house again and again. We cannot do that. We have a list of homes that are repeat offenders. We visit those premises frequently.People need to get rid of the habit of dumping waste wherever they please. Also, they must ensure that their houses are clean and free of stagnant water.
Vector-control workers have been working relentlessly. They have worked without a break for days. A large number of mosquito larvae were found inside people’s homes, in flower pots and other containers.Debika Chakraborty, councillor of Ward 3 of KMC (Milk Colony-duttabagan), where seven to eight cases are being reported daily on an average:We have been undertaking joint drives involving drainage, solid waste management and health departments of the KMC for the last three months. Whenever we came across any clogged drain, we cleaned it. But there is a water body, between Birendranagar and Dum Dum, that belongs to the railways. That is very unclean. If we get an NOC from the railways, we will clean it.
