COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has intensified dengue prevention drive across the city in view of the rainy season, and has advised people to keep their surroundings clean. The civic body stepped up the drive after several residents and councillors asked officials to increase the frequency of fogging operations. Meenakshi, a resident of NBC Nagar, said, “The fogging by the sanitary workers needs to be increased throughout the city, especially in the water stagnant areas, including subways and tunnels. CCMC must concentrate more on fogging in places like the sewers, storm water drains and dump bins so that dengue-spreading mosquitoes can be killed.”
City Health Officer (CHO) Dr Pradeep V Krishna Kumar told TNIE that there are a total of 600 Domestic Breeding Checkers (DBC) with the civic body, deployed to check for larva and mosquito breeding in the residential areas in all the 100 wards of five zones in the city, adding that the water is immediately drained out and the containers are thoroughly washed and left to dry in the sun.
“Everyone must understand that fogging alone won’t sort out the issue. People must take responsibility and keep their surroundings clean and clutter-free. As fogging can only kill adult mosquitoes and not larvae, so, instead of waiting for the larvae to turn into adult mosquitoes and then fog them down, we can kill them at their source by clearing unnecessary items from our surroundings and prevent dengue,” he added.
“Currently, the DBC workers have been pouring Abate Larvicide into artificial freshwater containers to kill the larvae. The workers have been inspecting around 50 houses each day and covering around 300 houses from Monday to Saturday. As Aedes mosquitoes bite during the morning and evening times, people need to be cautious during and cloth children in full sleeve dresses,” sources said.