CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation’s system to track mosquito breeding across the main waterways in the city has helped reduce larval densities by ten times in certain areas after it was launched last month.
This centrally monitored vector control monitoring system collates daily larval density readings taken at 60 locations in the Buckingham Canal, Cooum and Adyar rivers. “Zonal health officials take readings in five different locations that have been marked for each day of the week.
This allows us to get an accurate picture of vector-breeding levels across the city,” said chief vector control officer S Selvakumar.
This allows officials to target the use of vector control measures in different areas. In addition to effectively reducing menace in areas infested with mosquitoes, it also helps in conserving use of larvicides in areas with low larval densities.
“We are able to effectively use our resources and send mosquito sprayers and lorries to areas with the most menace. Daily changes are possible because of real-time data collation which wasn’t possible when we were manually monitoring mosquito menace,” said Selvakumar.
In addition to collating larval densities, the app also helps analyse pH levels at various points of these water channels.
Engineering solutions
Through this app, the Corporation will identify areas that don’t have water flow, thereby, providing a conducive environment for mosquito breeding.
“In areas where high larval densities persist despite intervention, we have asked zonal officials to identify places that require an engineering solution to aid water flow,” said Selvakumar, adding a committee has been set up to ensure there is a free flow of water in major channels.
Preemption is key to be mosquito-free
This app is used to provide intervention in high-mosquito breeding areas, daily, but officials in the health department believe that collation of data can help them preempt mosquito menace in various seasons. “Identifying a pattern will be key to predict spike or fall of mosquito menace in certain areas. This will take at least a year,” said Selvakumar, explaining that larval density will be analysed season wise and constantly keyed in with exceptional cases to make predictions even more accurate.