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Mosquito going strong as DCC drive fails

Helemul Alam
Mosquito menace is still making life unbearable as a 14-day drive of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to eradicate mosquito ended on February 23 in utter failure much to the frustration of city dwellers.
City dwellers suffering from pangs of mosquito stings said they had hardly seen any sign of mosquito control activities of the DCC in their areas.
The DCC started the drive on February' 10 in all 90 wards but it could scarcely do anything to free the city from mosquito menace, complained residents of different areas.
The nuisance not only causes sufferings to people it also makes the life miserable at offices, business centers, bus stops, train sta-
tions and launch terminals. Floating population also become easy victims to stinging insects.
The menace is particularly making life unbearable in areas that include Pallabi, Mirpur, Kazipara, Sewrapara, Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Hatirpool, Khilgaon, Basabo, Madartek, Shahjahanpur, Rampura, Shantinagar, Gopibagh, Lalmatia, Mohammadpur, Uttara, Gendaria, Shegunbaghica, Islambagh, Lalbagh and Sutrapur.
SSC and HSC candidates mainly fall victim to the nuisance, as they are to keep awake till late night for their exam preparation when mosquitoes buzz around in thousands making their study difficult.
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Frequent load shedding again adds woes to their sufferings when power is out for hours and in absence of electric fan the insects find a favourable condition to go for stringing spree.
"I am using mosquito coil, insect spray and even electric coil simultaneously but these arc helping me very little," said Rahman, a resident of Kalshi areaofMirpur.
"Life gets tougher as the darkness descends when mosquito nets are also of no use," said Nasim Reza, a resident of Uttara sector-14.
"We are in dilemma at night, especially when the power goes off as mosquito net is insufferable due to blistering heat and the nuisance of mosquito goes beyond tolerance in absence of electric fan," said Nazrul, a resident ofGendaria.
"I am using an Indian cream, Odomus, for my three and a half year old boy even at day time," said Ripa, mother of Farhan, who rented a house at Hatirpool on a five-storied building to rid her son of mosquito bite.
Nasim-us-Seraj, chief entomologist of the DCC said the number of workers for the eradication of mosquito is not sufficient to cover the city like this, which is one of the main reasons of breeding of mosquitoes unabated.
At least 900 more workers are required to fight the menace and the field level moni-
toring should also be strength -cncd simultaneously to get effective result.
"We sent a proposal of appointing 900 more men to the team few months back to the LGRD and Cooperatives Ministry," he added.
"We cannot strengthen our monitoring as the supervisors do not have transport facility to do the job and motorbike is very essential for such activities," he said.
There arc 411 workers for mosquito eradication in the DCC while 193 in the Mosquito Control Department working jointly for spraying larvicides.
The under-construction buildings mostly contributes to breeding of mosquitoes as they clog drains with building materials thus providing favourable condition for the mosquitoes to procreate on the stagnant water, he said.
This nuisance, on the other hand, is a boon to some businessmen who sell mosquito nets or mosquito killing instruments or insecticides.
"I have been selling around 35 mosquito nets a day for the last one week which was only around five earlier," said Mokhlesur Rahman, a mosquito net trader at Karwan Bazar.
The sales of mosquito coils and cans of insect spray such as aerosol has become twice or thrice as many recently due to mosquito menace, said Akhtar, a shopkeeper of Pallabi area.