HYDERABAD: Alkapoor township in Manikonda is facing a mass dengue scare after at least ten persons were diagnosed with various strains of dengue in the last one week. The locals say that the 4-km-long open stormwater drain running beside their colony has turned into a breeding ground for mosquitoes. They say that sewage from adjacent colonies is getting mixed in the drain leading to the spread of the disease.
They say that the new Manikonda municipality is not fogging the place to arrest the outbreak.
One of the victims of the same is a 4-year-old child and his mother who contracted the dengue NS1 strain and are on treatment for the same. “My wife and son were hospitalised for four days. The municipality must wake up and take measures to arrest the issue at the earliest because young children are falling prey to it,” said Abdul Arief, a local from the area.
Another colony — Sandfields Apartment — reported four cases in just ten days, with one person still admitted in the hospital. According to a representative from the township, the issue has been persisting since the last two years, as several colonies have attached their sewage lines into the stormwater drains right under the nose of the government officials. Officials say they have begun work across 59 roads to link the sewage lines to the main sewage, thereby diverting them from the stormwater drains.