HYDERABAD: While the State is reeling under dengue outbreak, Peddapalli district reported just 43 cases of dengue this year, a drastic fall from the 271 cases reported last year.
Peddapalli District Collector A Sri Devasena explained how this achievement was made possible by utilising financial resources available from the government as part of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Devasena, who took charge as the collector of the district last year, said that though the problem of open defecation was mostly resolved in the district and it was declared open defecation free (ODF), there is still a problem to be solved — of the household wastewater from flowing into open drains near the houses.
These open drains were also used by the local citizens for disposing of garbage, resulting in them getting choked. This subsequently causes stagnation of water and become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
It was decided to take up construction of soak pits in the household and also at the community level, as part of the ODF+ initiative, she said.
In just four months, 75,000 household soak pits and 16,000 community soak pits were built across the district, preventing stagnation of wastewater and clamping down on mosquito breeding sites, she said. The efforts were focussed in and around Manthani, which has huge forest cover.
This initiative not only helped in keeping the villages clean from choked drains and overflowing waste water but also in bringing down the dengue cases. Devasena said that in the peak season of the disease (June-September), just 25 cases of dengue were reported from the district.
MGNREGS has the provision of money for the labour as well as material, making it easy for such works to be undertaken at no extra cost.