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Ready for the mosquito war

SOHEL ISLAM
The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is planning a 'vigorous' mosquito control programme starting tomorrow although mosquito menace began long ago.
"The anti-mosquito drive, which was approved by the Mayor recently, will be carried out under the Mosquito Control Work Plan of the DCC for 2003-2004," said Chief Health Officer of the DCC Colonel Azizul Haque.
Under the work plan, the DCC will need 15,020 litres of larvicide and 3,88,505 litres of adulticide for this season.
"The mosquito season in the city officially starts in October and continues up to April. At the moment, we have larvicide to last six to eight months and adulticide for three months in our store," said Haque.
The DCC also estimated that the fuel cost of the transports and fogger machines to be used during
the drive would be around Tk 86 lakh.
"In recent months, we only carried out a larvicide programme to destroy the breeding grounds across the city. But we will now spray adulticide so that the surface mosquito can be controlled," added Haque.
"In ten zones of the city, there are about 565 hand-spray guns, 343 fogger machines, 45 wheel and 15 ULV machines while 605 manual, seven fogger, three wheel and three ULV machines are in the DCC's store department to meet any emergency," said Haque.
But 442 manual, 220 fogger, 47 wheel and 5 ULA machines remain out of order.
"A board was formed to check out these machines and ascertain if they could be fixed or not. If those cannot be fixed, we will declare them abandoned and auction them," said Haque.
The DCC had requested the PTAC (Pesticide Technical Assessment Committee) to extend the
conditional test registration for six months, which will expire on October 31.
The government had formed the PTAC following the DCC's decision to go for aerial spray to control excessive spread of mosquitoes last season.
"Due to the delay in equipment supply last year, the DCC could not test Anvil 10+10 which was supposed to be sprayed from the air. After registration from the PTAC, it can be used," said Haque
"At this moment, we do not even want to carry out the test spray for registration as it may cause panic among the city dwellers. Another reason is that mosquitoes have not yet attacked with all their might," said Haque.
"When the intensity of the mosquito menace starts increasing we will then test the aerial spray. If the PTAC gives the registration we will instantly spray Anvil 10+10 from the sky," said Haque.