CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to set up a panel of all the government agencies and work on filling up the potholes in order to ensure road repair work is completed all across Mumbai. This comes at a time when Mumbai is witnessing heavy rain and water-logging as a consequence.
Thackeray asked the respective agencies to ensure proper coordination in order to tackle COVID-19 diseases along with monsoon-related diseases. The Chief Minister further asked the BMC to hold a meeting with all the agencies which include MMRDA, PWD, Metro, Mumbai Port Trust, and the Railways, to fast-track all the monsoon-related works in Mumbai.
The BMC which has already been stretched to the limit in its fight against the novel coronavirus is about to deal with the pandemic during the rainy months. The monsoon season in the city usually gives rise to cases of dengue, malaria and leptospirosis along with floods and waterlogging.
There have been ongoing studies that have driven theories about the impact of monsoon on the existing coronavirus. Medical practitioners had earlier opined that the intersection of monsoon with the COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai will make it harder to enforce social-distancing norms and carry out contact-tracing in flooded low-lying areas. Civic officials, however, have stated that the shortage of manpower is its biggest worry as all available hands have gone into dealing with the coronavirus.
The insecticide department usually commences its pre-monsoon activities in March. It had earlier disinfected government offices, residential areas, police stations and hospitals where positive cases have been diagnosed. The department had also begun work in high-risk pockets of dengue, leptospirosis and malaria.
Every year the department inspects 7,201 government buildings to check 28,021 water tanks and other possible mosquito-breeding sites. A ‘mosquito abetment committee’ meets in March with multiple government bodies to clean these tanks.
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