Nagpur: A Survey undertaken by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) revealed that the plant pots at households are the main cause of breeding of mosquitoes in Nagpur. The survey revealed that a total of 41,858 articles including earthen plant pots, utensils used for water storage, tyres, cooler tanks were found to be having presence of mosquito larvae out of about 6.44 lakh houses that were surveyed.
As is the practice, people tend to pour excess water in the pots and sometimes the plants are watered two to three times in a day. The weather change during the season provides perfect habitat for the mosquitoes to breed, they require fresh water and that is available in plenty at the households. The citizens’ love for greenery is all right, but that sometimes becomes problematic without them having knowledge about it.
The other major cause of mosquito breeding is storage of water in steel and iron pans and other utensils as the mosquito larvae were found at 5,590 places during the survey. The survey was undertaken in a bid to curtail breeding ground for mosquitoes by advising citizens on steps they should take at their end.
The exercise was taken against the backdrop of a sharp rise in cases of chikungunya and dengue in the city. The Health Department carried out the survey and asked citizens to ensure that one day in a week should be observed as a dry day, meaning, avoiding the use of water for purposes other than basic needs.
During the survey, the Health Department teams checked the spots where breeding is likely to take place like wells, cooler tanks, water pots, flower pots which are water regularly etc. Additional Municipal Commissioner Anchal Goyal herself was on ground with surveyors in Laxmi Nagar Zone, which she inspected thoroughly. She was briefed on steps undertaken by the civic machinery like spraying chemicals on places where breeding activity is likely to take place.
Dr Deepak Selokar, Medical Health Officer, Dr Sunil Kamble, Zonal Health Officer were present during the inspection by Goyal. The ASHA workers, who visited the homes during this survey also found that 1,677 instances of coolers having turned into a breeding ground were noticed. At 3,538 places old tyres had accumulated rain water. Also the larvae were found in 8,178 drums, 3,178 water storage pots and 2,703 bird drinking water pans.
How the survey took place:
The civic body conducted the household survey in three stages and so far about 23,140 persons were found to be affected with one or other ailment. Apart from the sweeping survey, post getting data about afflicted patients, the ASHA workers visit the households and conduct thorough surveys and invariably they detect the larvae of mosquitoes, either in earthen flower pots or cooler tanks, said Dr Narendra Bahirwar, Medical Health Officer, NMC.
At 19,238 households the Health Department team found the presence of mosquito larvae. A cursory look at the statistics compiled by NMC reveals that the number of afflicted persons has come down drastically. When the survey was started about one and half months back, after the first roundabout 16,159 persons had symptoms of illness and after the second round the number of ill citizens came down to 6,474 and after the third round just 507 were detected. This indicates that the peak of chikungunya/dengue is reducing in the city. In the aftermath of the first round, maximum afflicted patients were found in Dharampeth Zone, about 1,888, followed by 1,559 in Mangalwari Zone.
