The war on the indestructible mosquitoes

CUTTACK: Mosquito menace in the millennium city refuses to go, the harsh summer this year notwithstanding. The density of mosquitoes has been unusually high across the city despite the fact that the hot and dry conditions cause a substantial depletion in their population.

A joint survey, carried out by the Health wing of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, the National Malaria and Filaria Control Programmes and the High Court appointed amicus curiae, has revealed that the density of the mosquitoes in the peak of the season is 40 per cent, much above the average.

What has, however, added to the concern is the reported presence of aedes egypti mosquitoes that can cause diseases like dengue and chikunguniya. The vectors have been found in several low lying pockets of the city, where water stagnation is a major problem. In a city like Cuttack, where the density of the population is very high, outbreak of the vector borne diseases could spell trouble as the health apparatus is not equipped enough to contain the spread, sources said.

While the increase in density of mosquitoes is being attributed to the recent showers, at the root lies the fact that the health administration in the city is in a shambles. The whole administrative apparatus, top to bottom, is plagued by shortage of manpower and as a result struggles to carry out the works effectively.

According to sources, the health wing of CMC is headless since March as the Government has failed to appoint a health officer after the incumbent's retirement. The CMC health office runs with one health officer and two assistant health officers. The current situation is that there is only one assistant health officer and the rest are lying vacant. At the fieldworkers level too, the shortage of manpower has been acute. For about 54 supervisors, there were only about 20 until a few days back before the Government allowed temporary contractual engagement of people due to the emergency. As a result all health related works in the city have begun to suffer.

The health wing is in charge of the bulk of civic works, ranging from sanitation and hygiene operations, mosquito control, birth and death registration, immunisation and vaccination programmes, polythene control and monitoring biomedical waste, etc. Unless immediate steps are taken, the situation could go out of hand in the city during the monsoon, sources said.